Smart thermometer sends real-time fever updates to parents
The Fever Smart patch thermometer acts like a mini nurse, tracking a child's temperature and sending the data to the parent's smartphone.
I remember being sick, as a child, and the seemingly endless rounds of parental checkups with an under-the-tongue thermometer. Trying to hold it in the right place for the right amount of time could be a challenge. There are less intrusive ways to take a temperature these days, but they still require periodic rechecks.
The Fever Smart thermometer on Indiegogo sends constant temperature-reading updates to a parent's smartphone. Even if you're down in the kitchen and your kid is upstairs taking a nap, you can still check in to see if the fever is spiking or going down. It send alerts if the child's temperature begins to rise, so you can get the little tyke to a doctor if necessary.
The thermometer comes in the form of a Bluetooth-equipped, battery powered-device anchored by a disposable patch that's placed under the kid's armpit. The Fever Smart sends data to a separate relay unit, such as an iPad or iPhone, that sits in the same room. The relay device forwards the information to the cloud, making it accessible through the Fever Smart app or any Web-enabled device. If there's a downside to this arrangement, it's that you need to leave an iOS device within Bluetooth range of your kid in order for it to work.
The device is going for a $129 pledge, which includes 10 disposable patches. In just a few days, Fever Smart surpassed its original funding goal of $40,000 and is now up over $51,000 with 29 days left for the campaign. The makers have built working prototypes and are currently in beta-testing on the accompanying app. If the campaign hits $60,000, then an Android version of the app will be available at launch in addition to the planned iOS version.
Fever Smart seems like the kind of home health innovation that could be truly useful for parents. It's bound to get a good workout during cold and flu season, but it could also be a powerful tool for keeping an eye on kids with chronic medical conditions. The data collected by Fever Smart can be shared with the child's physician. It could certainly take some of the hassle and uncertainty out of monitoring your little one's temperature.
