Non-invasive and wearable early fever detection system for young children

Abstract

Fever in young children is taken seriously by healthcare professionals as it indicates an underlying infection which can be life-threatening. Core body temperature can be accurately measured using traditional techniques, but these are not suitable for non-invasive monitoring during normal life. This study investigates the possibility of fever monitoring in children under 2years of age in a non-clinical setting based on various local skin temperatures. Various system designs are presented, i.e. single vs multi-sensor systems, and a set of sensors either localized or distributed across the body. The probability of positive fever identification on feverish children ranges from ∼40% to 77% using 1 and 5 sensors respectively, while the detected false positives are a 10%. We conclude that a continuous and non-invasive fever monitoring in children under 2years is possible by the propose method, providing a suitable solution for early fever detection and alert.