COVID-19 detection smart glasses are coming to the US

Governments and tech companies are working hard on ways to further protect people from the raging coronavirus pandemic. Recently, Google and Apple collaborated in order to provide a contact-tracking app which can help people know if they came into contact with someone with the virus. Now, TechCrunch reports that American entities can soon get smart glasses to help with thermal imaging.

China-based company Rokid has created glasses with an infrared sensor that can reportedly detect the temperature of up to 200 people from up to 9 ft. Additionally, the device is equipped with a Qualcomm processor, a 12 megapixel camera and offers AR features. The glasses can be controlled by voice commands and record live photos and videos as well.



The company plans to offer their device to US businesses, hospitals, as well as law enforcement officers with its COVID-19 detection. The glasses, called T1 Thermal Smart Glasses, connect via USB and can be synced with other platforms. The company additionally stated it does not collect info from the T1 glasses directly.

“Regarding this module…we do not take any data to the cloud. For customers, privacy is very important to them. The data measurement is stored locally,” said the US director, Liang Guan.



Large thermal scanning stations, such as in some airports, are not easily portable, while handheld devices with infrared thermal imaging need to be closer to people in order to provide information and can pose risks. “You have to point them to people’s foreheads…you need to be really close, it’s not wearable and you’re not practicing social distancing to use those,” added the company’s US director in regards to other technologies for thermal sensing.