Yole Predicts Thermal Imaging Boost in Post-Coronavirus Era

Yole Developpement analyst Dimitrios Damianos says “For sure, the COVID-19 outbreak will have a big impact on the thermal detector and imager markets and industrial landscape at different levels.”

“Indeed the automotive market did not show impressive interest for thermal technologies in the past,” explains Dimitrios Damianos. “In addition, such technology is not yet considered as a very important ADAS system in a car.”

But, in parallel, the demand for surveillance and thermography systems linked to fever monitoring will increase in various infrastructure such as airports, hospitals, public areas and warehouses. Therefore, Yole expects a positive impact in this specific industry.
In term of volumes, Eric Mounier, Fellow Analyst at Yole explains: “For thermal imagers, we expect more than 1.5 million fever detection cameras to be deployed in 2020 and in the next 3-4 years cumulatively at airports, businesses and other infrastructure. In US$ value, we estimate the total market to be US$7.6 billion in 2020, generating an impressive 76% YoY growth.”

In the current context, Yole’s analysts explore a new hypothesis: what if a thermal imager gets inside every smartphone? What if a major smartphone maker, like Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, Samsung or Apple, introduces a phone with a temperature measurement option now? Dimitrios Damianos asserted: “Naturally people are worried about COVID-19. It wouldn’t be outrageous to use something to measure their body temperature frequently, which happens to be constantly in or near their hands, namely their smartphone or their smartwatch.”