Smartphones have become versatile devices that can perform various tasks, including health monitoring. A new app has emerged that transforms your smartphone into a thermometer, allowing you to measure body temperature and detect fevers conveniently.

The Innovation Researchers at the University of Washington have developed an app that leverages the existing hardware in smartphones to measure body temperature without the need for additional devices. The app repurposes the thermistors embedded within smartphones, originally designed to monitor the device’s internal temperature, to detect warm objects in close proximity, such as the human body.

How the FeverPhone App Works By utilizing the touchscreen and repurposing the battery temperature sensors, the FeverPhone app collects data from the smartphone. This data is then used in a machine learning model to estimate the user’s core body temperature accurately. The research findings, published in the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, highlight the efficacy of the app.

Accurate Temperature Estimation During testing on 37 patients, the FeverPhone app demonstrated remarkable accuracy in estimating core body temperature. The average error was approximately 0.41 degrees Fahrenheit (0.23 degrees Celsius), falling within the clinically acceptable range of 0.5 degrees Celsius, according to the University of Washington report.

Limitations of the FeverPhone App While the FeverPhone app shows promise, there are some limitations that require further investigation. The study excluded participants with severe fevers exceeding 101.5 F (38.6 C) due to the ease of diagnosing such high temperatures. Additionally, the app may occasionally mistake sweaty skin for other skin-contact thermometers. Furthermore, FeverPhone was tested exclusively on three specific phone models.

Conclusion The FeverPhone app introduces a groundbreaking way to transform smartphones into thermometers for detecting fevers. With its potential to accurately estimate core body temperature, it could revolutionize temperature monitoring and assist in early fever detection. However, further research and development are necessary to overcome the identified limitations and ensure wider applicability across various smartphone models.

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