Why The Wrist Temperature Scanner Is Better Than Forehead IR Guns

Temperature scanners are all over the market these days. Without scanning your temperature, you are not allowed to enter any public premises, like airports, hospitals, offices, shopping malls, retail stores, educational institutes, and even factories and other places. If you are detected with a fever, you have barred entry to these places, unless you have a negative COVID-19 test report of not more than 15 days old. Now, when temperature scanning is deemed so vital in our day-to-day lives, why not employ the best devices for the same?

What are IR forehead guns?

At the beginning of the pandemic, the forehead IR guns were used to measure everyone’s temperature from a distance. The gun was operated by an expert and pointed at the forehead of the individual, whose temperature was needed to be measured. Every object on earth, living or innate, gives out some amount of infrared radiation, which can be measured to detect the surface temperature of that object. How and why do they give out this energy? Well, any substance that is not in absolute zero temperature has moving molecules inside. If the temperature of the substance rises, these molecules start moving faster, thus emitting more energy in the form of infrared radiation. The IR guns can then measure this radiation and detect the temperature of the substance. If the object becomes too hot, you may even detect the infrared rays in the form of glowing, visible light. 

In the case of humans, the skin’s temperature can be measured to detect elevations, which is exactly what the IR guns do. The no-contact gun pointed at the forehead of an individual focuses on the infrared rays emitted by the surface of the skin and channelizes them to the thermopile in the device. This is where the rays are transformed into heat energy and then to electrical energy, which is measured by the detector to reveal the temperature of the surface, which emitted the rays. The LCD screen on the device shows you this temperature to take necessary actions. The process may seem quite long, but it all happens within a few microseconds, depending on the quality and efficiency of the device, of course.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the IR scanners were widely used to check the Ebola and SARS viruses from spreading. However, this time, the situation is more critical, and although these simple forehead IR scanners have been functional during the first phase of the first wave, they are being considered faulty and ineffective now. Do you wish to know the reasons? Scroll on!

What are the challenges of using forehead IR guns?

The IR forehead guns are highly effective while measuring the surface temperature of an innate object simply by detecting the rays emitted by it. However, it can be a tad difficult to measure the temperature of a living being, a person, using these IR guns. Accuracy of measurement is a big factor that hampers the effectiveness of the IR scanners. It depends on the distance to object ratio that can be difficult to maintain for a mobile object, i.e., a person. On top of that, the temperature ranges of these devices may vary, and you should be careful to invest in one that can measure over a greater range. 

Coming to the operational errors, there are higher chances that the IR guns may not be operated efficiently to give accurate readings. For example, when the gun points at the forehead of a person wearing a hat or headgear, the readings will get affected. Similarly, sweat or makeup on the forehead may also produce wrong readings, thus misleading the operator. In case that person has a fever and god forbid if it is due to the COVID-19 infection, the inaccuracy of the forehead IR guns will allow him/her to spread the virus among the healthy population. Hence, many operators may ask you to remove such headgear, hats, or other accessories while taking your temperature. But it is not possible to remove makeup completely while getting your temperature scanned. Again, you may wipe the sweat off your forehead before getting scanned, but the moisture may have already reduced your temperature to a good extent. Even if you have a fever inside your body, it may not show in the readings. 

Such issues with the IR forehead guns forced manufacturers to devise advanced IR thermometers that completely obliterate the principle of measuring temperature from the forehead. 

Measuring temperature from the wrist or fist

Nowadays, most of the IR thermometers that you come across measure temperature from the fist or wrist. It is more effective than measuring the surface temperature of the forehead and gives almost 100% accurate readings. These devices are based on the principle that any elevations in temperature are carried to the veins, from where they can be measured accurately. As there is a network of blood vessels under the skin of the wrist, one can scan fever directly from there without touching the surface of the skin. Further, one has to make several adjustments to the IR guns, depending on the surface of the measured. But the thermometers that measure temperature from the wrist may go without such adjustments. 

Hence, the process is faster, and one can scan several people in a minute. 

Again, the wrist mostly goes without makeup or sweat. It is exposed most of the time, and unless you are wearing a watch, the no-contact IR scanners will give accurate readings. Make sure you put your free hand under the scanner or do not wear a watch on the wrist you are about to scan. However, other issues may apply to both the forehead and wrist IR scanners. 

Let us talk about those and find out how to resolve them. 

The effects of external weather on temperature scanning

Most of the time, no-contact temperature scanning is influenced by external weather and many other factors. The accuracy of the readings gets affected, thus misleading people and increasing the dangers of infection. For example, extreme chilly weather may cause the skin to become cold, thus hiding any elevations in temperature or fever. Under such circumstances, you may even allow a person with COVID-19 fever unknowingly to enter a public place. Similarly, too hot weather may cause the skin surface temperature to rise, giving the impression of a fever. Again, alcohol or certain foods may cause elevations in body temperature, which can be mistaken as fever. 

What can one do to alleviate such issues? 

Enters FeverWarn - IR thermometer with OPX technology

FeverWarn, the IR temperature scanner developed by Machine Sense uses FDA-approved technology for scanning fever. Our devices are incorporated with OPX technology that doesn’t allow external weather conditions to affect the readings. In fact, it also increases the range of temperature scanning, thus enhancing the device’s efficiency. The readings are almost accurate, in every situation, be it indoor or outdoor, and the sun’s UV rays do not have any adverse effect on the readings. This apart, the device has special AI software and geometry scanning technology to expand the temperature range and enhance the chances of reading accuracy. It is a self-service device that does not require a professional to operate it at all times. Last but not least, the device comes with in-built storage and cloud storage facilities to store temperature and other data for a long time. 

Are you interested to know more about FeverWarn? Contact us today and get informed about one of the best IR scanners in the market today!