Checking temperature at a distance is definitely on everyone's radar in 2020. The ability to know roughly whether or not someone may have a fever is helpful. Thankfully, Lewis Barclay's Raspberry Pi thermal imaging camera project makes the process easy and non-invasive!
Best of all, the final build is completely portable. It features a Raspberry Pi, a Pimoroni MLX90640 thermal camera, battery bank and a touchscreen display housed inside a single, custom case.
For this build, Barclay used a Raspberry Pi 3B model—but there's no reason you couldn't upgrade to the Raspberry Pi 4. The thermal camera module he used was an MLX90640 which may be hard to source right now, as thermal imaging components are highly sought after given the unfolding global events. The enclosure for the device is custom and was 3D printed.
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The touchscreen display measures 5" across and snaps into place using headers on the Pi. Once the final build was together, he tested it on a 3D printer bed. While the bed was resting at 60°, the thermal Pi rig provided a readout with accuracy within half a degree.
If you find this project interesting, we encourage you to check out the full video on his official YouTube channel, EverythingSmartHome. You can also follow Barclay on the official website for more updates and future projects.
