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

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 2 years 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 similar to 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 2 years is possible by the propose method, providing a suitable solution for early fever detection and alert.