Huawei’s 2020 smartphones have an IR temperature sensor integrated into the rear camera block that can measure the surface temperature of people and objects just like a normal thermometer. In a year when containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is a major concern and a fever can be an early indicator of infection.
The first of these Huawei smartphones is the Honor Play 4 Pro. Smartphones have always been the modern tech equivalent of a multi-purpose Army knife, combining a phone, a music player, a camera, a GPS, a PDA, and more into a single device. Now Huawei is pitching yet another device that can be integrated into a smartphone: a thermometer.
In a long detailed video posted on the Chinese social media site Weibo, Huawei shows off how the feature will work. It works like standard commercial temperature guns, a user just needs to aim at the phone at someone’s forehead, tap through the app, and the phone will give you a temperature reading. Temperature checks aren’t a guaranteed way to screen for COVID-19, but a fever is a symptom in the majority of hospitalized cases, and it’s very easy to check for.
The smartphone thermometer uses infrared technology (the same used in your TV remote control) to work as a non-contact thermometer which is becoming a common sight world-over. Huawei says its IR sensor can read temperatures from -20°C to 100°C. It should be noted that an IR sensor isn’t as accurate as a thermal camera, and neither device, which reads a surface temperature, is as accurate as an internally taken temperature.
IR sensors are cheap, though, and they are already frequently integrated into a smartphone for face unlock and camera effects, or even as remote controls –so Huawei was able to quickly react to the pandemic.
The Huawei’s “Honor” line is designed to bring a close to high-end features to a cheaper device. The Honor Play 4 Pro’s features include a 6.57-inch, 2400×1080 LCD, Huawei’s Kirin 990 SoC, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 4200mAh battery. It runs Android 10, but the US export ban means the Play 4 Pro doesn’t have Google Play apps and services, so you’ll be stuck with Huawei’s ecosystem. The phone is only being sold in China for now, where the version with the IR sensor runs $422.
