With workers coming back to the office and customers coming back to stores, businesses face the challenge of protecting their staff and their workspaces from the COVID-19 novel coronavirus. The best way to protect against infection is to keep out potentially infected people – and the best way to do this is via thermal scanning.
How Thermal Scanning Works
Thermal scanners are used to sense an individual's body temperature and sound an alert if a high temperature is detected. A body temperature scanner contains infrared sensors that quickly scan an individual's face or body. In less than 1 second, the thermal scanning device calculates that person's temperature and sounds an alert if the temperature is abnormally high.
One of the primary symptoms of COVID-19 infection is a higher-than-normal temperature. Most infected individuals have temperatures of 100.5 degrees or higher. A thermal scanner, such as the OneScreen GoSafe, is easily configured to detect temperatures above a certain level and alert nearby staff so that individuals can be blocked from entering the building.
How Thermal Scanners Improve Office Hygiene
By employing thermal scanners at all entry points, businesses can keep potentially infected people from the building. This can be done manually, by alerting staff when a high temperature is discovered, or automatically via a controlled entry system that prevents identified individuals from entering.
The goal is to keep potentially infectious people out of the workspace and away from employees and clients. COVID-19 is spread via close physical content with infected individuals. If those individuals are identified beforehand and kept from entering the building, the risk to a business's workforce and customers is minimized.
How Thermal Scanners Work with Facial Recognition Scanners
Temperature scanning is just one tool for minimizing the risk of COVID-19 to the workplace. Unfortunately, some individuals do not develop a high fever or other symptoms until up to 14 days after being infected. Businesses need to take other measures to reduce possible exposure, including social distancing and making mask-wearing mandatory.
The easiest way to enforce mask-wearing rules is to scan all individuals as they enter the building. AI-based facial recognition technology can identify when a person is or isn't wearing a mask and sound an alert when a mask is not recognized. This provides another layer of safety to employees and clients.
How Facial Recognition Works
Facial recognition is a developing technology used to identify individuals or individual features, such as face masks. It starts with a camera that takes a photograph of a person's face. Facial recognition software then analyzes that photograph and measures a variety of facial features called nodal points. A typical human face has up to 80 such nodal points, including the distance between a person's eyes, the shape of a person's eye sockets, the width of the nose, the shape of the cheekbones, and the length of the person's jawline.
These nodal points are measured to create a faceprint, similar to a fingerprint. Every individual has his or her own unique faceprint, which can be stored in large databases.
Facial recognition scanners can be used to identify individuals by their faceprints, or to flag people not wearing facial coverings. When an individual is not wearing a mask, the system sounds an alert and bars that person from entering the building, thus enforcing face mask regulations – and reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection.
Incorporating Facial and Thermal Scanning Together
The GoSafe system combines facial and thermal scanning in a single device. This provides an enhanced level of safety for employees and clients. Individuals with high temperatures are flagged, as are individuals not wearing face masks. Identified individuals can either be manually stopped from entering or automatically denied entry via controlled entry systems.
Implementing Thermal and Facial Scanning
OneScreen's GoSafe system can scan for elevated temperatures, mask presence, and facial recognition. It is available in multiple configurations, including wall mount, tabletop, or floor stand. Businesses can choose the configuration that works best for their workplaces.
GoSafe offers three modes of operation. It can be configured for standalone offline operation, operation over the company's LAN, or remote operation via the cloud. Access control is easily configurable to allow or deny entry based on mask detection, facial recognition, temperature, or the presence of a company ID card. Approval can be done automatically or via a remote operator. It even offers live video assistance for real-time operator approval.
Let Doing Better Business Reduce Your Business' COVID-19 Risk
To reduce the risk associated with COVID-19, give Doing Better Business a call. We offer a variety of products and services to tackle the COVID-19 problem, including GoSafe thermal and facial scanners. Our experts can help you reduce the risk to your employees and clients – and keep your workplace safe and healthy.
Contact Doing Better Business today to learn more about our COVID-19 technology solutions.