What’s the story, Wishbone? This smart thermometer takes temperatures touchlessly

By Jenny McGrath January 28, 2015

wishbone is a smart thermometer that touchlessly takes temperatures joywing — Image used with permission by copyright holder

There are lots of ways to take a baby’s temperature, but they all require some form of contact, some more unpleasant than others. A new smart thermometer promises to get an accurate reading of feverish foreheads without even touching them.

JoyWing recently launched a Kickstarter for Wishbone, its contact-free thermometer. Named for its “Y” shape, the smart device plugs into smartphone jacks and contains an infrared sensor that takes temperature readings in under two seconds from skin that’s less than five centimeters away.

The accompanying iPhone or Android app collects the data and can assign it to different profiles. This makes it easy to track your temperature, which is useful for sick children or women trying to conceive. According to JoyWing, the thermometer’s sensors work between 32 and 212 degrees Fahrenheit with an accuracy to plus or minus 0.36 degrees for body temperatures.

Related: Love the sun but hate the burn? A pool thermometer to monitor your UV exposure

The app has three modes: body, object, and ambient. In addition to the health information, Wishbone can tell you the temperature of the baby’s bottle or give you weather or home climate intel. Apparently the object and ambient modes are still under development as the JoyWing team works on the sensor calibrations.

Wishbone isn’t the first smart thermometer, but the touchless feature certainly makes it unique. It’s also portable and reasonably priced. Kickstarter backers can get one, in a color of their choice, for $33. As of now, the project has raised over $44,000, but it needs $60,000 to incorporate object mode and $70,000 for ambient mode. There are still 28 days to raise additional funding. If that happens, JoyWing expects to begin production in April.

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Jenny McGrath is a senior writer at Digital Trends covering the intersection of tech and the arts and the environment. Before…

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