Withings, the Paris-based health device maker that is now part of Nokia Technologies – announced the availability of Thermo, a WiFi connected temporal thermometer and app. Thermo is available exclusively at US Apple stores and Withings.com. The device is FDA-cleared as an over-the-counter medical device.

Originally announced at CES in January, Thermo is billed by Withings as an accessible, hygienic and reliable assessment of body temperature.

“Withings Thermo was designed to finally provide families with a solution that they can trust to provide highly accurate temperature readings in seconds, without having to wake the ill child or manually log their health levels,” Cedric Hutchings, VP of Digital Health at Nokia, said in a statement.

The appeal of Thermo, Withings says, is the ease of use: it doesn’t have to be inserted anywhere. By scanning the thermometer across the forehead to measure the temperature from the temporal artery, skin contact isn’t even necessary. The thermometer can be placed up to one centimeter away from the skin and get an accurate reading with an array of 16 infrared sensors that take 4,000 measurements in two seconds to detect the hottest point.

A specially-designed algorithm then automatically corrects for biases such as skin heat loss and the ambient temperature, and a reading appears both on the side of the device as well as automatically sent to a companion smartphone app, where users can assign them to a particular user and add notes.

Thermo also integrates with Boston Children’s Hospital Thermia tool, a decision support tool for fevers and associated febrile illnesses, and joins Withing’s other FDA-cleared devices such as the company’s Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor.
 
Nokia Technologies acquired Withings in April, shortly after indicating it was eyeing entrée into the digital health space. Things moved swiftly after, with the launch of a new Withings-connected scale to measure cardiovascular health and the FDA approval for Thermo in June. Nokia Growth Partners, Nokia's investment arm, also recently led a $10 million funding round for Swedish company Lifesum, which makes food and fitness-tracking apps.