Researchers develop FeverPhone App for smartphones to measure body temperature

Researchers at University of Washington have developed app for smartphones to help people check body temperature to detect fever faster

Most premium phones come with an array of features such as a top-class camera, powerful performance, support super-fast charging, and can help people do several things too, such as hail cab rides, getting food delivered, and a lot more. But, none of the current crops of tier-1 branded models come with sensors that can measure body temperature.

Well, researchers at the University of Washington have developed a special app FeverPhone that can enable any phone to read the temperature.

The FeverPhone app is almost ready and is expected to debut on major app platforms soon.

The interesting thing about the FeverPhone app is that users need not have to attach any accessory as such to their phones to read the temperature. The mobile app makes use of thermistors which are incorporated in all phones. The thermistor's main job is to keep a tab on the temperature of the device and whenever it detects overheating and crosses a pre-set limit, it makes the phone shut down.

Usually, when the phone is under heavy use such as streaming videos, playing graphics-rich games for several hours or operating a camera to record 4K or higher resolution videos, the phone asks users to switch it off or else automatically shuts down. Even while charging, particularly those which supports fast charging, thermistor plays a critical role in controlling heat around the battery. This way, thermistors play a critical role in phones controlling overheating and preventing explosions.

Now, the same thermistors are capable of reading body temperature by touching the phone's screen.

The UoW researchers even tested the FeverPhone app with three phones (unnamed) on real people. They placed the phone's front on the forehead for 90 seconds, which is said to be an ideal time period to gauge the air temperature and the rise in heat when the phone touches the skin.

To their surprise, the FeverPhone was able to match the reading of the temperature from the thermometer, with an average error of about 0.41 degrees Fahrenheit (0.23 degrees Celsius). The readings are said to be clinically acceptable under the range of 0.5 C.

However, researchers added that more work is needed to make the FeverPhone app more accurate in cases where sweating on the skin may cause a cooler temperature on the surface, but inside it will be higher in severe cases.

Also, there is a plan afoot to develop a similar app for smartwatches, so that people have ready access to temperature readers and get faster medical help.

“People come to the ER all the time saying, ‘I think I was running a fever.’ And that’s very different than saying ‘I was running a fever,’” said Dr. Mastafa Springston, a co-author of the study and a UW clinical instructor at the Department of Emergency Medicine in the UW School of Medicine.

“In a wave of influenza, for instance, people running to the ER can take five days, or even a week sometimes. So if people were to share fever results with public health agencies through the app, similar to how we signed up for COVID exposure warnings, this earlier sign could help us intervene much sooner,” noted Springston.

Joseph Breda, a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering is the lead author of this research paper. Shwetak Patel (UW professor in the Allen School and the electrical and computer engineering department, is the senior author of the paper. And, Alex Mariakakis, an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s computer science department, is a co-author.

This research was supported by the University of Washington Gift Fund.

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