DFRobot: Chinese Makers Unite to Build Thermometers During Coronavirus Pandemic
26 March 2020 - 4:13PM
Business Wire
Earlier in February, when the coronavirus began to spread out of
Hubei Province, where it first detected, the Chinese government
issued a national warning that fever could be initial sign of an
infection. Several days later, on 12th February, they announced a
60,000 shortage of infrared thermometer nationwide.
A month later, Xia Qing, cofounder of Mushroom Cloud Makerspace,
brought to work an infrared thermometer build by Dy Yong, a member
from his maker community. “After the vision sensor recognizes each
face passing by, the non-contact infrared temperature sensor
detects its body temperature and shows live parameter on screen.
The red light turns on when the tested temperature goes above
normal range.”
Xia Qing explained that the project only takes a maker one day
to build and costs ten percent of a similar product on the market.
“You could need another 2-3 weeks to make it more accurate, but so
far it’s suitable for a family or workplace precaution.”
The thermometer is among the 87 projects from an online campaign
launched by Xia Qing and his maker community, DFRobot Maker
Community, the biggest online maker community in China. “The idea
was first proposed by one of our members, to call for makers to
create projects that can benefit families and students during this
special period of pandemic.” Gong Chen, who runs DFRobot Maker
Community, said that other popular projects from this campaign
include a broadcasting system that updates statistics of the
pandemic in different parts of the country.
The campaign received instant response from the society.
“DFRobot (owner of DFRobot Maker Community and Mushroom Cloud
Makerspace) received an increasing amount of inquiries in past two
months, mostly about non-contact infrared temperature sensors.”
According to DFRobot, the infrared temperature sensors it provides
went out of stock within a week. The company is now working hard to
make the products available again before the middle of April.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200325005805/en/
Edward Teng DFRobot yuan.teng@dfrobot.com www.DFRobot.com |
www.DFRobot.com.cn