{"id":22076,"date":"2020-04-28T19:19:54","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T19:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/04\/28\/army-tweaks-new-goggles-to-scan-for-fevers\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:10:21","slug":"army-tweaks-new-goggles-to-scan-for-fevers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/industry\/techwatch\/2020\/04\/28\/army-tweaks-new-goggles-to-scan-for-fevers\/","title":{"rendered":"Army tweaks new goggles to scan for fevers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Researchers made adjustments to the digital thermal sensors on their Integrated Visual Augmentation System<\/a>, or IVAS goggles, so the devices can now detect a fever, service officials said this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A version of the IVAS goggles<\/a> are now being used at Fort Benning, Georgia<\/a>, on hundreds of soldiers arriving each day to train at the post, which hosts basic combat training, Airborne School and Ranger School<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five seconds was all it took for the goggles to detect the forehead and inner eye temperature of troops as they filed in through a processing center. The temperature of a soldier is registered through the goggle-wearer\u2019s heads-up display. Those who registered a fever were moved to a medical station for further evaluation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goggle screening system cleared a group of about 300 soldiers in roughly 30 minutes, according to the Army. The process could also be more sanitary than traditional screening measures, which require closer contact between medical personnel and patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always planned for an agile software system and a digital platform that can be upgraded and adapted to use against emerging threats in the future. No one anticipated the next threat to emerge would be a virus, but that\u2019s the enemy we face today,\u201d said Tom Bowman, director of the IVAS Science and Technology Special Project Office, who helped orchestrate the thermal tweaks to the devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, even though fevers are a known symptom of coronavirus, it\u2019s far from an absolute predictor. Up to 25 percent of people with the virus may never show symptoms, Centers for Disease Control director Dr. Robert Redfield has previously warned publicly, meaning symptoms could be a less effective gauge of troop health than originally hoped.<\/p>\n\n\n\t