COVID-19 classification using thermal images

Abstract

. Significance: There is a scarcity of published research on the potential role of thermal imaging in the remote detection of respiratory issues due to coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). This is a comprehensive study that explores the potential of this imaging technology resulting from its convenient aspects that make it highly accessible: it is contactless, noninvasive, and devoid of harmful radiation effects, and it does not require a complicated installation process. Aim: We aim to investigate the role of thermal imaging, specifically thermal video, for the identification of SARS-CoV-2-infected people using infrared technology and to explore the role of breathing patterns in different parts of the thorax for the identification of possible COVID-19 infection. Approach: We used signal moment, signal texture, and shape moment features extracted from five different body regions of interest (whole upper body, chest, face, back, and side) of images obtained from thermal video clips in which optical flow and super-resolution were used. These features were classified into positive and negative COVID-19 using machine learning strategies. Results: COVID-19 detection for male models [receiver operating characteristic (ROC) area under the ROC curve (AUC) = 0.605 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.58 to 0.64] is more reliable than for female models (ROC AUC = 0.577 95% CI 0.55 to 0.61). Overall, thermal imaging is not very sensitive nor specific in detecting COVID-19; the metrics were below 60% except for the chest view from males. Conclusions: We conclude that, although it may be possible to remotely identify some individuals affected by COVID-19, at this time, the diagnostic performance of current methods for body thermal imaging is not good enough to be used as a mass screening tool.

Simulation of Surface Temperature Distribution on a Body Subjected to External Air Flow

“…Upon its application in the medical domain during the latter part of the 1950s, this technique garnered substantial attention within the field of medicine, owing to its noninvasive nature and its efficacy as a prominent indicator of physiological dysfunctions (Jiang et al, 2005). Furthermore, irregular temperature patterns can be readily discerned through infrared thermography, thereby facilitating the establishment of correlations with pathological conditions, particularly in contexts of extensive screening, such as during pandemics (Fiscal et al, 2022).…”