Development under COVID-19

Liu Jen-sen’s low-budget, easy-to-make automated temperature determining station has been a hit, making him among a number of Taiwanese who have actually gained attention for their pandemic-fighting innovations

While engineering teacher Liu Jen-sen (劉振森) by hand took the temperature level of numerous trainees going into the structure, he made sure there was a more efficient method to complete the bothersome task.

With hundreds of trainees going into National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Electrical Engineering Building every duration, the exercise put professors in close distance with visitors when social distancing was essential to battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Liu immediately had a eureka minute, headed to his basement workshop and patched together a prototype for Prevention No 1 (防疫一號), an automated temperature measuring station.

The device Protection No 1, an automated temperature level determining stand, checks Liu Jen-sen’s temperature level in front of the Electrical Engineering II building at National Taiwan University. Liu, an engineering professor at the school, created the device.

Picture: Han Cheung, Taipei Times

With infrared thermal video camera systems costing up to NT$ 500,000, Liu’s was a take at NT$ 6,000.

Avoidance No 1 is now utilized across school and in other organizations. The current version at NTU’s primary entrances, which costs about NT$ 12,000, can even scan visitor’s ID cards and transmit the details to a central database.

BATTLING COVID-19

An upgraded variation of Defense No 1 at National Taiwan University’s Xinhai Rd entryway scans each visitor’s ID card and takes their temperature level.

Picture: Han Cheung, Taipei Times

Liu is among numerous Taiwanese who have gotten attention for their innovations to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lai Hsien-yung (賴賢勇), an anesthesiologist with Mennonite Christian Healthcare facility developed a simple protective device for usage when intubating clients, and Soochow University physics teacher Chen Chiu-min (陳秋民) made aN ultraviolet disinfection gadget for masks utilizing common household goods.Both Lai and

Chen have actually shared their styles with the general public. Liu had planned to keep Prevention No 1 for campus usage only, but his department head Wu Chung-chih (吳忠幟) and college dean Chang Yao-wen (張耀文) convinced him to advertise the blueprints and hold a press conference to promote them.

“I was simply reacting to a problem triggered by the pandemic,” Liu states. “I wasn’t thinking about making a huge deal out of it; I just wanted to make things more convenient for everybody.”

Ever since, public institutions and private business have actually constructed their own variations of the device, and a group of NTU alumni subsidized the building of near to 80 gadgets for others in need.Growing up watching MacGyver, a show about a male who utilizes clinical understanding to get out of hard situations, Liu imagined becoming a heroic inventor.

More prosaically, he created a sensor system years ago that would notify security if a person fell or jumped onto the tracks of Taipei’s Mass Fast Transit (MRT), however dropped the task after learning that the corporation had set up automatic platform gates.

Liu likewise considered doing something with no-touch elevator buttons when the pandemic hit, but temperature tracking was more immediate. Liu states that in addition to the cost, infrared thermal cams are quickly impacted by the environment and need someone to monitor them continuously.

The first variation was not automatic. Users stepped on a button, which triggered the thermometer weapon.

He automated the device by attaching the weapon to an infraired sensor– the kind found on auto-flush toilets– and including a battery pack.

The process from idea to creation took just two weeks, and upon setup, it substantially decreased queuing times.

The ID-scanner function was established by the NTU Maker Club, which continues to tinker with the device to strengthen its capabilities.

Liu wishes to release Avoidance No 2, which, in addition to yet-to-be-revealed upgrades, will look more like an item rather of a makeshift gizmo.

“I don’t understand exactly how many locations are utilizing the gadget,” Liu says. “But whenever somebody manages to develop one and shares their outcomes with us, it makes me very pleased.”