Accurate Core Body Temperature Prediction for Infrared Thermography Considering Ambient Temperature and Personal Features

Accurate and timely core body temperature measurement is essential for identifying and preventing heat-related illnesses. Infrared thermography (IRT) provides a non-invasive, full-scale and efficient temperature path for body temperature screening. However, the complexity of environmental factors and personal features continuously affect the measured skin temperature, resulting in low accuracy and reliability of existing body temperature monitoring by IRT. To address this issue, this study proposed an innovative core temperature prediction model (CTPM) for IRT based on heat transfer mechanism between the human body and the ambient environment. Based on human body thermoregulation, the optimal facial thermal feature that can reflect the impact of ambient temperature on skin temperature is proposed. Combining it with personal features and distributed facial skin temperature features, a CTPM is established based on Random Forest algorithm. The proposed CTPM are evaluated using a publicly available PhysioNet facial and oral temperature dataset. The results demonstrate that the proposed optimal CTPM achieves the best accuracy and consistency in predicting core body temperature. The root-mean-square error of the optimal CTPM is 0.259 °C, and the mean lower and upper 95% limits of agreement are −0.505 °C and 0.507 °C, respectively. Variable importance analysis indicates that the proposed optimal facial thermal feature makes a dominant contribution to the prediction performance of the optimal CTPM. Our method enables accurate and stable core body temperature prediction in complex ambient environments over a wide range of temperatures, and has the potential to replace traditional contact measurements to meet clinical needs.