Development and Prototyping of an Automated Temperature Scanner with Contact Tracing Capability

An automated temperature scanner with contact tracing capability within an organisation such as a University campus, government ministry and so on is described herein. The system is developed to assist in response to government's efforts at curtailing the spread of the novel COVID-19 pandemic and other high temperature-related diseases such as Ebola and Lassa fever. The device when installed in a premise does an automated temperature screening using its non-contact temperature sensors. It grants access only to users with temperature within the normal body temperature range (35.5 o C to 38 o C) and denies access to users whose temperatures are higher than the normal temperature. It performs authentication through which it acquires user's identity details such as name, sex, and address through its sensors and sends them with the acquired temperature to a remote database where the data so acquired can be further analysed. This data is useful for contact tracing, monitoring speed of diseases and for the purpose of planning/prevention of future occurrence. The developed device is incorporated with solar power which makes it usable in places with inadequate or without grid power. Being an automatic device, it functions without a human operator compared to hand-held infrared thermometer which can only be used when the screening officials are on ground. Possible application areas include University premises, schools, corporate organisations and public places such as shopping malls, hospitals to mention but a few. © 2021 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.