Open-source and privacy-conscious (thermal) camera (software) for health monitoring.
This is a work in progress. Please contact Michael Schwanzer if you would like to contribute (michael@zeitdice.com, @mschwanzer)
- A major difference between thermal cameras (recently getting deployed to detect humans with high body temperature to screen for a potential COVID-19 infection) and the common CCTV style security cameras (which have been around for a while and we are used to, capturing just what humans would see) is a thermal camera's ability to capture visual data beyond what one would expect to see in the public domain (i.e. under garments and physical characteristics of a human body).
- We believe that only open-source software of thermal visual technology can and shall be potentially trusted by the public and can be implemented / managed in a trustworthy and privacy-concious manner.
- We are not trying to offer a medical testing device or a 100% accurate screening solution. However, we believe that based on our expertise in making smart cameras, we can create an apparatus that can detect humans with elevated body temperature (potentially fever, an indicator of infection, potentially unknown by the host) in a way that would not interfere with anyone and their privacy unless a higher than expected body temperature is detected.
- COVID-19 seems like it will be around for a while. A vaccine might eventually become available but the timeframe for that is unknown. Medical testing capacities (infected yes/no, antibodies yes/no) are increasing but it’s unknown how practical / available any of these tests will be to contain / monitor the spread of the virus through communities in the short / mid / even long term. As of now, we don’t even know if a proof of antibodies today means you can’t get sick again or transfer the virus again soon). Schools, offices, factories, they all want to open up again as soon as they are allowed and technology might help to reduce the risks involved.
- We believe that unless there is a better solution (vaccine?) to protect humans from COVID-19 infections in general there will be a need for a combination of several technologies to contain the spread of the virus that can and should be deployed in areas mentioned above but could also be effective in other setups.
- We acknowlegde that there are commercial & proprietary solutions out there for human temperature screening. Contributors and sponsors of this project believe that there should also be an open-source alternative that can be trusted to not invade privacy beyond what is necessary to keep people healthy.
- We are trying to create a solution that only uses components that can easily be procured and afterwards assembled and installed by anyone with minor technical skills. Through our partners, we aim to also offer an assembled / pre-configured version at cost.
- Create an easy to assemble, deploy, maintain, operate and procure parts for thermal camera apparatus that can be used to automatically (no operator needed) detect humans with elevated body temperature with the least invasion of their privacy, when they are walking by a defined space without, interfering their path (like stopping, to push a button to get a screening).
- Hot or Not Cam in public spaces. Big Screen setup reads "come closer to find out if you are hot or not, literally", show a warning first "this technology will use thermal vision to read your body temperature". A computer vision detectable hand sign can be used to agree to the screening, like a thumbs up and the screen will show some data afterwards, but not details of the human in front of it.