La Grange Company Develops New Touchless System To Check Temperatures

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Many workplaces and public spaces are already taking temperatures before allowing entry, but the process can be slow and requires close contact. 

Now a LaGrange firm has developed a revolutionary touchless way to monitor the temperatures of dozens of people in milliseconds.

When the country eventually gets to the new normal what could it look like taking in a sporting event or turning out for a festival in the age of Covid-19?

The new system has a monitor at an entry point that scans the body temperatures of 16 people or more at the same time without ever having to stop. A screen shows as a box appears around their images recording their temperatures within half a degree.

"We wanted to solve for a problem we saw coming down the road," said Nick Dubak with Dubak Electrical Group.

A thermal camera is embedded in a unit that looks like a robotic panda. On video green squares indicate healthy temperatures, and red squares indicate an elevated temperature that could require more attention.

"We have over 3000 hours of r and d into this project," Dubak said.

It's called DuThermX. Dubak Electrical began developing the system in January as the coronavirus threat surfaced in China.

"It quickly became apparent to me and our organization that this was going to be a new normal and a requirement going forward," Dubak said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says temperature recordings will play a key roll in opening up work spaces and events. In barely four months, the system is up and running in 50 mostly industrial locations nationwide including about a dozen in Chicago. There are 150 are currently under installation.

"Leading the charge is by far and away the food and beverage and pharmaceutical industry," Dubak said.

The price tag is hefty, starting at $31,000, but from schools to airports, it is technology that could kind of get us back to normal.