Video-Based Elevated Skin Temperature Detection

• Published in: IEEE transactions on biomedical engineering Vol. 70; no. 8; pp. 2430 - 2444
• Main Authors: Dasari, Ananyananda, Revanur, Ambareesh, Jeni, Laszlo A., Tucker, Conrad S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.08.2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Angular reflectance; Cameras; Cellular telephones; Computers; Data acquisition; High temperature; Humans; Infrared detectors; Mobile computing; non-contact; Optical properties; Reflectance; Reflectivity; Sensors; Skin; Skin Temperature; Temperature; Temperature distribution; Temperature measurement; Temperature sensors; Thermometers; Video data; video-based
• ISSN: 0018-9294; 1558-2531; 1558-2531
• DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2023.3247910

In this work, we propose a non-contact video-based approach that detects when an individual's skin temperature is elevated beyond the normal range. The detection of elevated skin temperature is critical as a diagnostic tool to infer the presence of an infection or an abnormal health condition. Detection of elevated skin temperature is typically achieved using contact thermometers or non-contact infrared-based sensors. The ubiquity of video data acquisition devices such as mobile phones and computers motivates the development of a binary classification approach, the Video-based TEMPerature (V-TEMP) to classify subjects with non-elevated/elevated skin temperature. We leverage the correlation between the skin temperature and the angular reflectance distribution of light, to empirically differentiate between skin at non-elevated temperature and skin at elevated temperature. We demonstrate the uniqueness of this correlation by 1) revealing the existence of a difference in the angular reflectance distribution of light from skin-like and non-skin like material and 2) exploring the consistency of the angular reflectance distribution of light in materials exhibiting optical properties similar to human skin. Finally, we demonstrate the robustness of V-TEMP by evaluating the efficacy of elevated skin temperature detection on subject videos recorded in 1) laboratory controlled environments and 2) outside-the-lab environments. V-TEMP is beneficial in two ways; 1) it is non-contact-based, reducing the possibility of infection due to contact and 2) it is scalable, given the ubiquity of video-recording devices.