Thermal cameras at airports and train stations that are supposed to detect potentially infected people supposedly see more than you would like.

The most important thing about the thermal cameras against the new coronavirus in brief:

  1. Thermal cameras at airports and train stations are supposed to make farts visible
  2. These cameras are intended for the early detection of people potentially infected with 2019-nCoV
  3. However, the video is from 2016 and was digitally edited by the creators

The Global Times account, a Chinese English-language news site, tweeted this note:

“Can’t help but fart? Well, better hold back because the infrared temperature sensors recently installed in airports and train stations to monitor passengers' temperatures amid the #coronavirus outbreak can see her.”

There is also a 16-second video with the following description: “You can see the farts! The infrared detectors at the train stations are amazing .”

[mk_ad]

Where is the video from?

Unfortunately, we have to say that this tweet puts a further damper on the already weakened trust in the Chinese press, because the video is anything but current.

Back in January 2016, the account “Banana Factory” posted this almost two-minute long video on YouTube , the scenes in the tweet are from it:

There are only six videos from the account on YouTube, all taken with thermal cameras… and a little addition!

A look at the description helps!

“Banana Factory” doesn’t want to mislead anyone, but has made something clear both in the account description and in the video above:

The video description explains it
The video description explains it

In German:

“This video was captured with a FLIR thermal camera. All thermal imaging footage is authentic, only the farts have been digitally edited.

Can you see farts with a thermal camera?

This question was also on the minds of the “Mythbusters”, who asked themselves this question back in February 2016, when the above video went really viral. They even built a “ fart machine ” so that they didn’t have to live on beans for the duration of the experiment.

In episode 245 , which was broadcast on February 27, 2016, the sobering result: No , you can't see farts with a thermal camera!

This is logically understandable: thermal cameras measure the temperature of solid surfaces. If they also measured the temperature of the surrounding air, you wouldn't be able to use such a thermal imaging camera in warm and hot places because the whole image would simply be colorful.

[mk_ad]

Conclusion

It's uncertain whether the news site just wanted to tweet something funny or was serious, but the fake doesn't really make the Chinese press any more credible: No, you can't see farts through thermal cameras, the video is from 2016 and was digitally edited !

Article image: Dario Sabljak / Shutterstock.com


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )