COVID-19 Hackathon Health Category - Smallest IR Thermometer for COVID-19 fever detection
mTracker Smallest IR Thermometer For Fever Detection
CDC rated fever is no.1 symptoms. To solve the biggest shortage of medical tools for COVID-19 triage, we design the smallest non-contact IR Thermometer gun with the least materials to manufacture. We can use lean manufacturing to overcome the supply chain challenges.
It inspires me to design a most basic low cost fever detecting thermometer gun starting when I run into serious problems in finding supplies in China while designing our smart LED product as Head of Product. I received many business friends asking me to help them to order surgical masks when Wuhan announced the Covid-19 outbreak in Jan. I even received the request to order 700,000 units of thermometer gun shipping to China. This is very shocking when China is the no. 1 and largest medical manufacturer.
When I learn Covid-19 is not going away this summer, this year and even next year I realize the seriousness of medical equipment shortage around the world. Many countries with manufacturing capabilities and talent such as Taiwan, Japan, Korea, would limit the export of medical equipment. Many countries in Europe would prevent certain medical equipment shipment leaving the countries. The most shortage of Covid-19 diagnostic tools is body thermometer. CDC states the no. 1 symptom for Covid-19 is fever. Even China manufacturers can not produce enough quantities to meet their internal demands. The manufacturing process of non-contact thermometer guns has not changed for decades and it tends to be a long process that involves many factory workers.
It’s time for the US to go back to the root of manufacturing and product design. It’s time to disrupt the making of thermometer guns using the modern lean approach. It comes down to speed, cost and flexible manufacturing.
Here I’d like to solve the biggest problem - getting the non-contact thermometer gun to the hands of hospital nurses in the shortest time at scale.
mTracker is the basic non-contact thermometer gun to detect fever for screening possible Covid-19 like those used in airports. It detects the sign of fever by measuring the forehead of temperature.
We have Concept design, Industrial Design and Electronic design done in 2 days. We are the same hardware team that is working on a very innovative product with 10 advanced sensors. We do hardware design everyday.
We can make a ready to manufacture Beta sample very cheaply and fast for product demo. In order to drop the BOM cost within $5-10 at scale, we would need certain donation and funding to cover the initial manufacturing cost.
We are able to use the most basic form factor and widely available materials for the product design. My vision is to produce a thermometer gun the same size as travel size hand sanitizer you can hang in your keychain, pocket, purse and bag. It is very light weight and durable. It can be easily cleaned and disinfected with alcohol. The assembly is very easy to make even in small machine shops.
The cost of a thermometer gun in China rises to over 100 RMB from 3 RMB. Manufacturer insiders estimated the price would continue to rise to over 300 RMB in next few months. The biggest problem is not the cost. There are not enough China manufacturers to meet the high demand.
The US has overtaken the no. 1 of the infected cases over China today. The White house can’t find enough orders in the US and overseas. Our US Government can’t get the US manufacturers to produce enough medical equipment. Plan C would be relying on 3D Printer communities to produce masks, face shields and even ventilators. But it takes experienced talents to build and manufacture non-contact thermometer guns creatively as the global supplies are in stress.
We’ll design the next Travel size UV wand to kill the Covid-19 germs anywhere and any time. It is designed to eliminate most of Covid-19 germs on surfaces. The US faces a serious shortage of disinfectant spray, hand sanitizers and even alcohol to make your home disinfectant. There are many situations where you can not use water and soap to remove Covid-19 germs.