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Article

Improved Measurement Method of Human Skin Temperature Based on Human Skin-like Gradient Standard Radiation Source

1
National Institute of Metrology of China, Beijing 100029, China
2
Beijing Key Laboratory of Performance Guarantee on Urban Rail Transit Vehicles, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 100044, China
3
School of Materials Science and Physics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Thermo 2025, 5(4), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/thermo5040038
Submission received: 11 August 2025 / Revised: 29 September 2025 / Accepted: 30 September 2025 / Published: 2 October 2025

Abstract

Infrared thermography for human skin temperature measurement, when calibrated with standard blackbodies, suffers from errors due to the mismatch in emissivity between a blackbody and human skin. This study introduces a novel calibration method utilizing a human skin-like gradient radiation source to enhance measurement accuracy. A custom radiation source with six temperature points and skin-like emissivity was developed. Thermal imagers were calibrated using this source, and their performance was compared against traditional blackbody calibration. The proposed method reduced the calibration error to 0.04 °C, a significant improvement over the 0.15 °C error obtained with blackbody calibration. Calibration with a skin-like radiation source proves superior to the blackbody method, enabling high-accuracy (less than 0.1 °C) human skin temperature measurement for improved fever screening.
Keywords: calibration; radiometric thermometry; human forehead temperature; human skin-like gradient standard radiation source calibration; radiometric thermometry; human forehead temperature; human skin-like gradient standard radiation source

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Li, T.; Zhang, Z.; Feng, G.; Chen, X.; Hao, Z. Improved Measurement Method of Human Skin Temperature Based on Human Skin-like Gradient Standard Radiation Source. Thermo 2025, 5, 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/thermo5040038

AMA Style

Li T, Zhang Z, Feng G, Chen X, Hao Z. Improved Measurement Method of Human Skin Temperature Based on Human Skin-like Gradient Standard Radiation Source. Thermo. 2025; 5(4):38. https://doi.org/10.3390/thermo5040038

Chicago/Turabian Style

Li, Tianshuo, Zhenyuan Zhang, Guojin Feng, Xinhua Chen, and Ziqi Hao. 2025. "Improved Measurement Method of Human Skin Temperature Based on Human Skin-like Gradient Standard Radiation Source" Thermo 5, no. 4: 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/thermo5040038

APA Style

Li, T., Zhang, Z., Feng, G., Chen, X., & Hao, Z. (2025). Improved Measurement Method of Human Skin Temperature Based on Human Skin-like Gradient Standard Radiation Source. Thermo, 5(4), 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/thermo5040038

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