Future Technical Analysis of Dow Jones Industrial Index

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thermal-imaging sensors used in the fever-sensing machines

The machine used for the fever detection is made up of various components. One of these is the thermal-imaging sensor, or thermal camera, which detects body temperature. The thermal-imaging sensors used in the fever-sensing machines actually belong to the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), whose soldiers use them together with operational weapon systems for night-surveillance operations, according to Evelyn Ong, manager of corporate communications at DSTA.

For fever screening, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, which is a statutory board overseeing Changi airport operations, has set the cut-off temperature of the sensor at 37.5°C. A person who walks past it and does not have a temperature will appear on the screen in blue, green or other “cool” colours. If the person is slightly feverish, there will be red hues or spots on the exposed forehead and neck areas. If the person has a raging fever, his face will appear mostly red.

Commercially, how much can the fever-sensing units fetch? “As this system was modified to meet the immediate needs of the nation in the war against SARS, the initial batch of the system uses currently available resources (from the SAF and various organisations),” says DSTA’s Ong. “Therefore, it would be difficult to provide an accurate figure on the cost of the system.” Future sets to be produced commercially are expected to use other commercially available thermal-imaging sensors. However, ST Electronics’ Loh estimates the list price of each machine at S$150,000.

The Ministry of Health first approached DSTA earlier this month for possible screening tests that could be deployed immediately in the battle against SARS, says Ong. This followed its already ongoing collaboration in the decoding of the genetic make-up of the SARS virus. “DSTA examined the various capabilities that we have developed and that are available, and the thermal-imaging sensor delivered to the SAF was identified as a possible device to be adapted for temperature screening,” she adds.

The end product of the collaboration is an innovative system made up of a sensor, two flat-screen monitors, a central processing unit and a calibration instrument. DSTA’s Ong says that when the system was first deployed at Changi airport on April 11, the results obtained were “very positive”.

To be sure, the fever sensing machines will give a boost to the image and profile of DSTA and the listed ST Engineering, but the impact of potential commercial sales of the S$150,000 units is not expected to be significant for the latter.

Sebastian Heng, associate director of research at BNP Paribas Peregrine, puts the whole project in perspective: “The machines will be useful for the bottom line, but their potential pales in comparison with ST Engineering’s current order book of S$5 billion.”

http://www.dsta.gov.sg/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2825&Itemid=401

Thermal imaging – a hotspot for the future?

Thermal Imaging has been considered for use in a wide range of medical circumstances. It has been shown to be useful in aiding diagnosis and guiding management of foot injuries in military recruits when combined with clinical examination, radiographs and bone scanning.⁴ Telethermography has been demonstrated as a useful tool in aiding diagnosis and management of sports injuries.⁵ Cole et al. demonstrated a significant relationship between early thermographic assessment of the depth of skin burns and clinical outcome.³ Various types of thermal imaging have also been used in studies of diabetic neuropathic feet,¹ the detection of carpal tunnel syndrome,⁷ the investigation of tendon injuries in horses⁶ and in the monitoring of undesirable thermal proximity damage during surgical energized dissection and coagulation.² During the international severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis of 2003, thermal imaging was employed as a screening tool at border points. At Singapore's Changi International airport alone 442,973 passengers were screened and of those 136 identified for further investigation and observation.⁸ The modality's sensitivity for identifying passengers with even low grade pyrexia (>37.5 °C) highlights recent technological advances and brings to attention future possible uses.

The main problems previously identified with the use of thermal imaging in the evaluation of a possibly injured limb include a lack of specificity in identifying the site and nature of pathology and difficulty in establishing normal references. While thermography could never replace radiography as a diagnostic tool, it may be useful as an adjunct to clinical examination and X-ray. As this case demonstrates, children can prove difficult to assess in the accident and emergency department environment. Injury localisation in this patient group can prove difficult and the “survey” of a limb with X-ray may result. The use of thermal imaging could improve the sensitivity of clinical examination and therefore assist in injury localisation, preventing unnecessary X-ray exposure.

In this case it may be postulated that thermal imaging has detected a localised increase in temperature associated with the normal inflammatory response to a fracture. This is an early response and if it was shown to be reliable then the modality may be useful in a wider area of emergency medicine. Early radiological findings can be unreliable in conditions such as scaphoid fracture and the “toddler's” type fracture of the tibial shaft. Thermal imaging could potentially be used in early follow-up to exclude fracture in these situations and prevent prolonged immobilisation and possibly more invasive and expensive bone scanning. It is likely that thermal imaging would be of use when examining bones that are relatively superficial where temperature changes are going to be more apparent.

Thermal imaging has been shown to be effective in assessing the depth of skin burns³ by measuring different skin temperatures created by varying states of perfusion. It may therefore be useful as a real time assessment tool examining changes in peripheral perfusion during the resuscitation of a shocked patient, giving a continuous recording of response to treatment.

Modern thermal imaging is rapid, non-invasive, non-emitting and with improving technology becoming more user-friendly and more cost effective. Given these attributes and the potential applications to emergency medicine outlined above, there is a need for our speciality to study the technique further.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7CRN-4FSNXTG-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=efb4696dcc5badfe4bdb2698296eaf13

Thermal imaging and predictive maintenance: what the future has instore

Advancement in infrared detector technology has made significant progress. Whilst there is still good reason to use single element detectors to achieve the high spatial resolution required for remote kiln shell line scanning, infrared focal plane array based thermal imaging systems bring new benefits to thermal imaging used within the cement plant. Lower costs and easier to use equipment with simple to use software open up many opportunities for plants to perform their own predictive and preventive maintenance. This provides more flexibility and faster return on capital as they can conveniently utilise the equipment for preventive and diagnostic use instead of being wholly dependent on third parties or consultants. Focal plane array based infrared cameras are now being brought into new roles within the entire plant including inside the kiln itself, where they can bring both imaging and measurement benefits that improve process control, operational efficiency and energy costs

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel5/6862/18429/00848528.pdf?arnumber=848528