Radio Taiwan Internationl
Date: 07 February, 2020
By: Leslie Liao

Fears about the novel coronavirus have sent demand for medical equipment skyrocketing. Thermometers are just one of the tools needed to keep the virus in check, but supplies are short. One high school in New Taipei City has stepped in to help, developing a new thermometer that’s cheap, fast, and easy to produce.

It’s a simple device that looks like a plain plastic box with batteries in it. But, in fact, it is a thermometer, a new device was invented by teachers and students at New Taipei’s Taishan Senior High School.

The design, software, assembly, and testing process were all done at the high school. It takes two hours to make one of these thermometers. They are accurate within half a degree Celsius.

The director of Taishan high school’s electronics department, Lu Sheng-han, says that it took less than a week to develop this new thermometer . Each one costs around NT$600 -NT$700 (US$20-US$23). 

This invention has come just in time: an outbreak of coronavirus has many venues taking the temperature of every person going inside. That means a sudden demand for thermometers.
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