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Your Smartphone Might Already Have a Built-In Body Thermometer

“A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created an app — FeverPhone — that transforms smartphones into thermometers without adding new hardware. To take someone’s temperature, the screen of a smartphone is held to a patient’s forehead. Shown here is lead author Joseph Breda (left), a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, measuring Richard Li’s temperature.”
“A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created an app — FeverPhone — that transforms smartphones into thermometers without adding new hardware. To take someone’s temperature, the screen of a smartphone is held to a patient’s forehead. Shown here is lead author Joseph Breda (left), a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, measuring Richard Li’s temperature.” Image: Dennis Wise / University of Washington

Many wearable devices, including the latest Apple Watch models, can measure a user’s temperature through their skin but aren’t accurate enough to be used as medical devices for detecting fevers. However, a new app could turn a stock smartphone into a near medical-grade thermometer when the device’s screen is held against a user’s forehead for 90 seconds, without requiring any hardware upgrades or accessories to be attached.

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