The outbreak of airborne pandemics, such as SARS and COVID-19, exposed the vulnerabilities of our society’s preparedness for such crises. Though multiple steps were necessary to gain control over the situation, mass screening emerged as a crucial strategy to curb the spread of diseases around the globe during these outbreaks.
Expert in computer vision and algorithms, Mr. Dwith Chenna expresses the need for effective non-contact medical screening methods as a potential way to curb the outbreak of pandemic. In 2016, he embarked on groundbreaking research with the FDA medical devices team as an ORISE Research fellow where his master thesis work focused on “IR (Infrared) Thermography (IRTG): Non-Contact Medical CounterMeasures for Infection Screening” and Image Photoplethysmography (IPPG), two crucial approaches to measure temperature and heart rate without direct contact that profoundly drove medical strategies during the pandemic.
Mr. Chenna explained that his research centered on Infrared thermography, involving the reliable measurement of temperature from thermal and RGB cameras. The everlasting challenge within the concept was to identify consistent temperature points on the face across weather conditions in different geographical locations. He developed an innovative approach to combine thermal and visible cameras, mapping the thermal and RGB images through coarse to fine registration strategies enabling multimodal registration. He further explained the specificity of this approach. “Coarse registration employed edge features to minimize differences between modalities and perform a high-level affine transformation, while fine registration utilized edge features for a non-rigid fine transformation, implying a constant result irrespective of the weather conditions or the overall temperature of an area,” He stated. “These strategies enabled accurate temperature measurements using key points from both RGB images and thermal data.” He added.
As an ORISE research fellow at the FDA, Mr. Chenna found his passion in the domain of public health and safety. His research led to publications in prestigious Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineer (SPIE) Journals, further fueling his dedication to advancing non-contact medical countermeasures. He continued his research towards developing a challenging IPPG-based method for measuring heart rate from videos, aiming to enable non-invasive heart rate measurement through phone or surveillance cameras.
He re-emphasizes that these methods will revolutionize public health and safety. Similar to TSA screening, he envisions a future where such technology-enabled devices and tools are used for infectious disease screening, preventing potential outbreaks and attacks, similar to COVID-19. As the world foresees these technologies becoming a norm in airports for mass fever screening of populations, thermal screening systems that have already been deployed at airports during and post the COVID-19 outbreak offer glimpses to the humongous potential and necessity that it holds.
Rigorous research and vetting is crucial to establishing high standards for medical clearance, ensuring reliability and effectiveness. The applications of this technology extend way beyond infectious disease screening. Mr. Chenna also sees potential of the technology in pediatric and elder care, where continuous vital sign monitoring is essential as non-contact methods minimize discomfort and inconvenience to patients while ensuring accurate temperature and heart rate measurements.
In conclusion, Mr. Dwith Chenna’s pioneering research in contactless medical screening opens new possibilities for safer and more efficient healthcare. With his innovative contributions to the industry, he is developing a future where non-invasive medical screening technologies transform the way we approach public health challenges, especially during pandemics like COVID-19.