How do IR Thermometers work & Launching Season 2
Hey friends, Happy Wednesday!
This is the last week of Season 1: Wellness Gadgets. I aim to write my newsletter issues in a way one can follow them while traveling on a bus, having a coffee, waiting for your food, etc. Let’s jump in!
Launching Season 2: Travel and Transport
Thank you all for taking the time in voting on the theme for Season 2. We have the results. After going over Wellness Gadgets in Season 1, Season 2 will have gadgets related to Travel and Transport. This can include headphones, skateboards, instant cameras, unicycles, gimbal stabilizers, flying machines, etc. But I haven’t finalized anything yet. Please feel to reply to this email with gadgets you’d like to read about. It helps both you and me!
I’m happy about taking this newsletter and blog to Season 2 from next week. Like Season 1, I’ll have exclusive gadgets explained and discussed in my newsletter on top of the blog posts. Thanks for your support and for reading my emails every week.
How does a Contactless Thermometer work?
An infrared thermometer is a type of contactless thermometer that was used at several workplaces for finding our body temperature during Covid as it’s a non-invasive method. Here is how it works!
Some physics to get all of us on the same page: Every object (above 0 Kelvin, aka -273C in temperature) emits Infrared Radiation. They are part of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum where wavelengths range from 700nm to 1mm. These waves are longer than those of visible light (400nm - 700nm) but shorter than radio waves.
The infrared thermometer does not emit Infrared light to detect our body temperature, but it’s actually the other way. Our body emits Infrared radiation corresponding to our body temperature. The higher our body temperature, the proportionally more IR is emitted from our body.
These are then detected by the thermopile sensors within the thermometer, which converts the radiation emitted from the body to a voltage output.
After which, this signal is amplified and fed through a signal processing unit where it is mapped to a body temperature. And finally, this gets displayed digitally to the user.
This whole process can happen in a fraction of a second! It is meant to be used in close proximity for high accuracy.
Question of the week
How does the thermopile sensor work? Share your thoughts by replying to this email, would love to discuss this with you. I’ll answer this in next week’s issue.
Gadget of the week
Generating power from Seawater: A renewable energy startup developed a wireless lantern device called ‘WaterLight’, which can transform half a liter of salt water into 45 days of light. The device needs to be filled with 500 ml of seawater or urine. And it works 24 hours a day through ionization, where the electrolytes in the saline liquid react with magnesium and copper plates on the interior of the lamp to produce electricity over a prolonged period of time.
Blog posts
My first blog post S2E1 from Season 2 is coming out next week. I’ll notify you next Wednesday about the same.
I’m thinking of writing about a non-vehicle gadget for the first episode. Also, let me know if you’d like to read about a specific gadget/device. Thank you for reading.
Have a nice rest of the week, and take care!
Until next Wednesday,
Chendur
