
Ask HN: Detect Coronavirus Fever via Webcam? - HaukeHi
I have an idea for creating an open-source zero marginal cost, digital thermometer to detect coronavirus. Can you help?<p>Here&#x27;s the idea:<p>1. Heart rate can be estimated via (webcam) video of someone’s face with high accuracy (even with poor video quality).[1],[2]<p>2. This heart rate can then be used to estimate core temperature with high accuracy.[3],[4]<p>3. Fever (body temperature ≥38°C) [5] is the most typical symptom of C19 - in 88% of confirmed cases.[6] (Though some C19 transmission might be asymptomatic[7] and presymptomatic.[8],[9])<p>4. Can we start an open-source project to create a digital fever thermometer? This could be used as a smartphone app or on the web (ala donottouchyourface.com). A webcam could continuously monitor people’s temperature and alert them to it if they have a fever.<p>‘Thermometer Guns’ have drawbacks: they’re more expensive, you need to get close to someone’s head to take temperature, they are not very accurate, they don’t provide continuous measurement- yet it is still used for coronavirus containment.[10]<p>I feel if this would work, it might be a very cost-effective intervention to diagnose coronavirus.<p>[1] &quot;Detecting Pulse from Head Motions in Video - People.csail.mit ....&quot; http:&#x2F;&#x2F;people.csail.mit.edu&#x2F;balakg&#x2F;pulsefromheadmotion.html<p>[2] &quot;Heart rate estimation using facial video: A review &quot; https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&#x2F;science&#x2F;article&#x2F;abs&#x2F;pii&#x2F;S1746809417301362<p>[3] &quot;Estimating Resting Core Temperature Using Heart Rate&quot; https:&#x2F;&#x2F;journals.humankinetics.com&#x2F;view&#x2F;journals&#x2F;jmpb&#x2F;1&#x2F;2&#x2F;article-p79.xml<p>[4] &quot;Real-time core body temperature estimation from heart ... - NCBI.&quot; 13 May. 2015, https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pubmed&#x2F;25967760<p>[5] &quot;Early Transmission Dynamics in Wuhan, China, of ... - NEJM.&quot; https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nejm.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;full&#x2F;10.1056&#x2F;NEJMoa2001316<p>All other citations here:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.google.com&#x2F;document&#x2F;d&#x2F;1D4nhDux-ncnsZjXJrmXkZiK7LJjH_tyxWkVJR3fOOJ0&#x2F;edit?usp=sharing
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verdverm
How would you know the fever is because of Corona virus?

Are you going to assume all fevers are Corona? That seems a bit biased and
over-reactionary

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clintonf
Great idea! Even though this will not help detect coronavirus directly, it
will help ease off the load on the testing facilities.

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photawe
It may well be, but in all seriousness, buy a thermometer and do accurate
testing.

