{"id":482,"date":"2025-03-03T15:06:40","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intra.projects.unibz.it\/?page_id=482"},"modified":"2025-03-06T16:56:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T16:56:38","slug":"thermal-camera-experimentations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/intra.projects.unibz.it\/?page_id=482","title":{"rendered":"Thermal Camera Experimentations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thermal Camera Experimentations<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

We experiment with tools that help relate to data and infrastructures in embodied ways such as data walks and field studies using thermal cameras. By engaging in these activities we explored how to extend our sensory apparatus, creating the conditions to notice invisible relations and redefine visible ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Floor heating in common university areas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A thermal bridge making some parts of the floor warmer than others<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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External view through a cold window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The metallic surface of a full elevator<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The display window of a shop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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How does it work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Warm objects emit a specific kind of light: the infrared, which is not perceivable by the naked human eye. However, thermal cameras can enhance human sensorial experiences of their surroundings. Thermal cameras have specific sensors sensible to long infrared waves and a screen that translates these waves into color-coded images (from red-warm to blue-cold). Since it is a photographic tool, mirror surfaces can lead to misperceptions, in fact, even if the surface is cold, it can reflect the light of warm objects.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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thermal photo of a car in motion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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FLIR TG267 Thermal Camera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The window glass appears to be warmer than the wall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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If a finger enters the camera frame, the glass and the wall appear to have almost the same temperature<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Is this camera shooting?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Thermal Camera we used for the explorations was a Flir TG267, lent by colleagues of the Friction Lab project (Faculty of Design, unibz). This thermal camera is a professional tool to measure heat with precision in terms of temperature and position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results are interesting from a data collection perspective; however, we experienced it as not ideal for experiments “in the wild”. The camera has been designed for a specific use context (e.g., industrial settings, building engineering) and might be not well-suited for gathering data in public spaces. Its shape and interaction (looking, pointing, and clicking) might be intimidating and create confusion about its purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notes on the chromatic system<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The colour-code displayed can be set in the menu and have different chromatic visualisations, but the most important thing is that the colour codes are not absolute, but relative to the warmest object on the field.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Observations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The the the bike, the bio-object and the chair<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

From some photos of people moving around the university there was something notable: under the lens of a thermal camera, bikers become one whole thing with their bike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This seems the visual representation of a paragraph written by Brian O’Nolan in the 1940, later published under the pseudonym Flann O’Brien in the novel The Third Policeman<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who nearly are half people and half bicycles.<\/p>\nFlann O’Brien, The Third Policeman, 1967.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Photographing some colleagues in the university and in the Fablab it was even more evident that, under the lens of a thermal camera, people can become one whole thing with the tools they are using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Laura in front of her computer. Even if she is not working while the shot is taken, she seems connected to the computer because of the residual heat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Uwe using a lens for the circuit welding. He seems connected to the lens because its light is powered by electricity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Adele using a sewing machine, her arm seems to blend with a part of the machine because its movement generate warm and it is powered by electricity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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This resonates with Kantor’s theatre theories, in particular with the concept of Bio-object:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BIO-OBJECTS were not props which the actors used. They were not \u201cdecorations\u201d in which you \u201cact\u201d. They made indivisible wholes with the actors. They exuded their own autonomous \u201clives\u201d, not related to the FICTION (content) of the play.<\/p>\nTadeusz Kantor, ‘Further Development: The Object’, trans. William Brand, unpublished manuscript in Cricoteka \u2013 the Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In their fiction these two authors emphasized the user-technology entanglement, a big subject of study for the field of Human-Computer Interaction. With the thermal camera these theories can become visual metaphors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thermal Camera Experimentations We experiment with tools that help relate to data and infrastructures in embodied ways such as data walks and field studies using thermal cameras. By engaging in these activities we explored how to extend our sensory apparatus, creating the conditions to notice invisible relations and redefine visible ones. How does it work? Warm objects emit a specific kind of light: the infrared, which is not perceivable by the naked human eye. However, thermal cameras can enhance human sensorial experiences of their surroundings. Thermal cameras have specific sensors sensible to long infrared waves and a screen that translates these waves into color-coded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-482","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.projects.unibz.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.projects.unibz.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.projects.unibz.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.projects.unibz.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.projects.unibz.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/intra.projects.unibz.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":593,"href":"https:\/\/intra.projects.unibz.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/482\/revisions\/593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.projects.unibz.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}