Design of an Automatic Temperature Screening System for Elevated Skin Temperature with Information Logging Capability

With the outbreak of the highly-contagious SARS-CoV-2 virus and its accompanying coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many government agencies adopted contact tracing to measure and mitigate the spread of the virus. Contact tracing aims to keep track of the individual's movements and activities and identify all those who they come in contact with. This study is focused on designing a cost-effective, efficient, and accurate system for information logging and temperature screening with a complementary contact tracing feature. The system provides an automated, safe, and physical-distance-aware alternative to manual temperature measurement and data logging practiced by most commercial establishments. The system uses an Arduino and a Raspberry Pi, along with infrared temperature sensors utilizing proper calibration methods to yield temperature reading difference of 0.1 - 0.3 degree-Celsius taken at 10 cm distance. User identification is done by reading either specifically-registered RFID tags or system-generated identity-QR code. Temperature is subsequently read, date and time stamped, and logged into the system. This allows for automated and exact association of the user logged information with their corresponding temperature.