NEC Avio’s Thermo Mirror SX-01, the world’s first Mirror Thermometer, asks users to look and don’t touch: an integral infrared sensor inside the device detects and displays the viewer’s temperature from a distance.
The device is basically a miniaturized version of airport fever detectors used to screen passengers who might be infected with Avian Flu. The touchless thermometer is non-invasive as a sensor within the body of the device reads the body temperature of a person standing in front of it and displays the reading on the mirror’s surface.
The Thermo Mirror SX-01 offers a number of advantages over conventional mercury thermometers, mainly that the user does not need to either hold the thermometer under their tongue or rest it in their armpit – hygiene is preserved and users feel less stressed.
As well, doctors or parents of fearful and/or uncooperative children would no longer have to deal with taking the child’s temperature with a hand-held digital thermometer that must be inserted into the child’s ear. As with under-the-tongue thermometers, cleanliness becomes a non-issue.
The Thermo Mirror SX-01 from NEC Avio Infrared Technologies Co Ltd. is pioneering this type of remote fever-sensing technology for the non-governmental and non-corporate market and as such, prices are extremely high: 98,000 yen ($1,160) for the SX-01A and 120,000 yen ($1,420) for the SX-01B, which “will be able to trigger external devices and combine its own measurements with those of external sensors”, according to a SlashGear review.
It may be that purchasers of this device will be hospitals, nursing homes, and medium to large medical clinics in the short term at least. (via Coolest Gadgets and Tech-On!)
