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Device makers have struggled to integrate temperature sensors. Smart phones and smart watches have become medically accurate body thermometers, but researchers at University of Washington They say they have come with a way Turn off the smartphone from the shelf right to that –With nothing but a new application. THey, he’s calling you. Fever phone.

Although like smart wearables Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra With newly added sensors it can measure the user’s body temperature, this is a feature. Apple has so far asserted that it is not accurate enough It is used for medical diagnosis or treatment. Instead, both of those devices use temperature measurements to give users a better understanding of their sleep patterns throughout the night. Unlike heart rate readings, the Apple Watch is still not a digital thermometer that can take accurate temperature readings on demand.

As most of us found out during the worst days of the Covid-19 pandemic, non-contact digital thermometers are not very expensive, but they sell out quickly when demand increases. As an alternative, researchers at the University of Washington turned to smartphones. One key difference: their solution is not Desire Any additional attachments or hardware upgrades. Smartphones rely on components called thermistors to measure the internal temperature of the device, including the battery, to enable safety precautions to prevent overheating. That’s why the iPhone sometimes shows a warning that it needs to cool down before you can safely use it again.

The thermometers used in medical grade thermometers cannot directly measure the user’s body temperature while inside the smartphone, but are used to monitor the amount of thermal energy between the user and the mobile device. They are making contact with. The researchers used a sous-vide machine to heat a plastic bag of water to simulate a test subject with a fever, and used protective cases and screen protectors mounted on the touchscreens of various smartphones. A built-in thermistor was used to measure how quickly the device warmed up during this interaction, and that data was used to train a machine learning model that powers the FeverPhone app, which predicts the user’s body temperature.

መሪ ደራሲ ጆሴፍ ብሬዳ በስክሪኑ ላይ የሙቀት ንባብ የሚያሳይ የFeverPhone መተግበሪያን የሚያስኬድ ስማርትፎን ይዞ።

Using the FeverPhone app looks easy, but it requires users to hold their device at an angle and press the screen to their forehead for about 90 seconds. This is assumed to be the optimal time for sufficient body heat to transfer to the device, and the interaction of the forehead is detected by touch, allowing the device and application to recognize when an intentional measurement is being made.

During a clinical trial At the University of Washington School of Medicine’s emergency department, the app was tested on 37 participants; It has 16 mild fevers and the results are compared with oral thermometer readings. Feverfone was able to predict a user’s core body temperature “with an error of about 0.41 degrees Fahrenheit (0.23 degrees Celsius) on average,” which is equivalent to the accuracy of home use thermometers, including connectivity options.

The researchers are initially working on just three different devices to improve the app’s accuracy by expanding the number of smartphone models used to train the machine learning model. But they hope it can be trained to work with smartwatches, which work much better because their smaller size allows them to heat up faster and take measurements in less than 90 seconds. The FeverPhone may never be certified as a medical-grade thermometer, but it seems accurate enough to give users a better idea of ​​when they’re actually sick and should take the appropriate steps to protect themselves and others.

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