Australian Company Bigmate Launches “Thermy™” - Thermal Screening to Detect People with Elevated Temperatures

Brisbane, Australia –April 2, 2020 Brisbane based computer vision leader Bigmate, today announced the commercial availability of a pre-screening solution using thermal imaging, which immediately detects elevated temperatures of people entering or leaving workplaces in real time.

Unique in its ability to scale, “Thermy” can be quickly and easily deployed in a wide range of facilities, including factories, territorial borders, warehouses, government and private offices, and any location where people are moving through entrances and walkways.

Thermy uses thermal cameras and advanced analytics to provide a pre-screening observational solution which helps identify people who present the risk of an abnormal temperature. Persons in question could have their core body temperature validated, utilising the organisation’s normal medical and/or Operational Health and Safety procedures.

Mark Shield, Bigmate’s Managing Director, said; “With Thermy, organisations can create a pre-screening detection system to identify people with skin-elevated temperatures, which in turn minimises the risk of impact to workplace environments.  Keeping workers safe is what Bigmate is all about and this technology can assist businesses keep their workplace healthy and productive. We are excited that this industry leading product has been developed in Brisbane and proud we are able to do our small part at this challenging time.”

Thermy is able to identify a ‘true skin view’ even when the subject may have a beard, a hard hat, or a protective suit which covers the body - or other features which often reduce the ability to take an accurate reading from traditional thermal camera-based solutions. Thermy also eliminates the problem of ‘flaring’ which occurs when an image is recorded in places of extreme temperature variation, by removing the background object from any analysis, focusing on the person. Thermy can also operate at scale, by detecting one or many people with elevated temperatures simultaneously. This is one of Thermy’s market-leading innovations. Thermy also utilises “edge” network services so it can still function if a network connection fails.

Thermy is based on Bigmate’s “Warny” solution, which uses sophisticated computer vision algorithms developed over a number of years, to protect people working around dangerous machines, such as forklifts, trucks or industrial cutting machines.

Warny is used by some of Australia’s leading industrial companies to detect instances of spontaneous combustion of materials, overheating of equipment and fires in the workplace.

Warny features a number of globally-leading innovations. For example, it is unique in its ability to create distance measurement from one camera, through Bigmate’s industry leading software. This allows for the extremely accurate measurement of individual skin temperature, social distancing, and people counting.

One of the ways in which Thermy logically extends Warny’s capabilities is by using thermal cameras, providing real time information through dashboards, hosted in Australia on Amazon Web Services (AWS) for remote viewing and trend analysis. If someone with an elevated temperature profile is identified, an alert will be sent via multiple media, aligned to the company’s workplace health and privacy policies.

“Thermy is not intended to be a medical apparatus. It is observational technology but it is designed to play a critical role in helping organisations speed up their ability to protect workers and their families in the fight against highly contagious virus outbreaks such as COVID19, the everyday day flu and beyond,” said Mr Shield.

About Bigmate:

Established in Queensland, Australia in 1996, Brisbane based Bigmate is a business outcome focused technology and services company. Over that time Bigmate has established a proven record in the provision of critical risk management solutions using computer vision and industrial sensors.

Our focus is keeping workers safe using technology, which in turn helps to drive productivity in some of Australia’s largest companies, government and local government.

Bigmate is an Amazon Web Services Partner, providing Bigmate with access to AWS’ industry leading services, its scale, flexibility and speed to market.
For further information or an interview please contact
Peter Witts
Sydney Director, Technology
Navigate Communication
Ph + 61 477 274 412
peter@navigatecommunication.com.au