Honor has released a new smartphone called the Honor Play 4 Pro that is equipped with an infrared temperature sensor. The official Weibo account of the firm confirmed in a video that the handset displays readings of temperature after it is held up to the wrists and faces of people. These phones had been announced in China and there has been no report or statements of international release.

Apparently, a temperature sensor may sound more like a niche feature in smartphones, but amid the pandemic situation wherein high temperatures can be an indication of suffering from COVID-19, the technology can prove to be useful.

The importance of the technology completely depends upon its accuracy. Honor has stated that the sensor usually works between the temperatures starting from -20 degrees Celsius to up to 100 degrees Celsius, that equates to more or less -4 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit . This is sufficient to be able to cover the range of possible temperatures for the human body, and the sensor can also be used to sense temperatures down even to the tenth degree.

Reportedly, Honor is not the first known firm to deploy hardware that can sense the temperature in smartphones. Cat’s S60 is a rugged smartphone that comes equipped with a thermal imaging camera along with thermal imaging sensors that are usually sold out as smartphone attachments. The phone may not have taken up by a lot of users, but it was meant to be used by professionals like tradespeople working on building sites or park rangers.

Other new phones apart from Honor Play 4 Pro seem to look more like traditional handsets under the midrange group. The cheapest of model in this particular range happens to be Honor Play 4 and is equipped with MediaTek Dimensity 800 processor, has four rear cameras like the wide-angle, macro cameras and depth sensing, and it also begins with 6GB RAM.

Source Credit- https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/3/21279217/honor-play-4-pro-temperature-sensor-covid-19-china-launch