Researchers create an app to measure your temperature with your phone: how does it work?

The service for mobile devices could clear up more than one doubt you have about your body temperature. Here more details of its design and operation.

Smartphone manufacturers have been working on designs that incorporate body temperature sensors for years, but so far there has been no success in this area. For this reason, researchers from the University of Washington have developed Feverphone, software that would meet this objective. How does it work? We tell you the details about it.

The Washington researchers tested their thermometer software on a device widely used around the world, and it’s not the smartwatch or the smart band: it’s the smartphone and its thermistors.

Even if you don’t know it, most modern cell phones incorporate sensors that monitor excess temperatures in components such as the battery or the processor. However, said element has not been designed for the external conditions of the equipment, but it is true that they can register the amount of heat that is transferred from another object that comes into contact.

The developers conducted their tests with a kitchen rod to create a plastic hot water bag that simulated the skin of someone with a fever. After that, they brought the balloon closer to different phones so that the thermistor could evaluate the internal temperature changes as a result of the heat transfer.

The data obtained was used so that the FeverPhone learning model now makes precise measurements. As part of the operation of the application, you must hold the smartphone by the edges and place the screen on the person’s forehead. In this way, you can calculate its body temperature after a few seconds.

According to clinical trials conducted at the Emergency Department of the University of Washington School of Medicine, the app is comparable to an oral medical thermometer and detected fever in 16 patients.