[Electronics-talk] Talking Medical Thermometer Revisited

[Gerald Levy]

After some research, I decided to purchase the Healthsmart DigiScan Multifunction Ear/Forehead Thermometer, model 18-935-000, which is available from Amazon.com for $10.95 plus $5.49 for shipping and handling.  I chose it because it received mostly favorable customer reviews for ease of use and accuracy.  It arrived yesterday, and came with two AAA batteries already installed, so it was ready to go right out of the package.  I didn't even need to refer to the instruction manual to use it.  To take your temperature, you simply place the probe against your forehead midway between your eyebrows and hairline and press and hold the large button on the back.  The unit emits one beep followed by two short beeps.  When you hear these two beeps, you release the button, and your body temperature is announced in a clear female voice in degrees Fahrenheit.  The unit can be switched to announce temperature readings in Celsius, if desired.  You can also take your temperature in the ear, which is somewhat more accurate, by removing the probe cover.  The temperature readings taken on the forehead are slighttly lower than those obtained with an oral thermometer, but seem to be consistently accurate.  Temperature readings taken in the ear are also accurate and are a little closer to those obtained using an oral thermometer.  The unit also announces the time and room temperature by pressing the large button under the LCD display, and I was even able to set the time without sighted assistance, although there is no announcement of the hours or minutes as you are setting them; you have to carefully count the number of beeps from the value currently announced by the thermometer to the desired value.  For instance, if the current time on the thermometer is 12:01 AM and you want to set the time to 8:25 AM, you would count 8 beeps to set the hour and 24 beeps to set the minutes.  The unit stores up to 30 temperature readings, and can even be set to speak in five languages other than English, which is the default.  Thank goodness, it didn't speak Chinese out of the box.  LOL!  The unit also displays the date, but this is not announced and cannot be set without sighted assistance.  Best of all, whenever I don't feel well and want to take my temperature, I can easily replace the two AAA batteries if they turn out to be dead, unlike those crappy generic talking oral thermometers sold by the blind products merchants.  This thermometer is a must for visually challenged moms with young kids who need to monitor their temperature when they are ill.  And for under $17, it is a pretty good  value.  For more information:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008DVRIIU/ref=sr_ph?ie=UTF8&qid=1421848386&sr=1&keywords=healthsmart+digiscan+thermometer


Gerald