3 ms·

>This makes sense, because you can calibrate the sensor in the factory and not worry about "is that a faint line I am seeing? Do faint lines count?" situation a

>This makes sense, because you can calibrate the sensor in the factory and not worry about "is that a faint line I am seeing? Do faint lines count?" situation anymore. Converting continuous data to a simple yes/no output has value. But can you trust this calibrations? I bought a infrared thermometer and for some fucking reason for my son always shows at least +1 degrees but is fine for everyone else in the family. I discovered this only after a few days where his fever would not calm down and I found some old thermometers and confirm that is broken(still shows fever for him a month later and I could not find any logical explanation what is special with my son)

rootusrootus 5y ago
AFAIK 1 degree does not count as a fever, especially in children. That's within the range of normal variation.
- simion314 5y ago
  It is always over 38 Celsius which qualifies as fever where under the tongue is 1 degree less. So if I use it on my I get 36.4 on my son I get 38.4 , even if I try different areas of the body is still converges on the high value.
- mc32 5y ago
  I think they’re saying it always seems to be off by one degree for their son compared to other thermometers.
xkcd-sucks 5y ago
Re: IR thermometers, the temperature measurement is related to surface emissivity (basically the fraction of heat that gets radiated as light), which can be pretty variable between people (skin grease, cosmetics, sweat). As well as variability in blood flow etc. if it's a forehead measurement. In the antigen test strip case one would hope the materials and lighting to be controlled, so less risk of miscalibration (even if it's a stupid way to satisfy somebody's demand for a test to be made "quantifiable")
- simion314 5y ago
  >Re: IR thermometers, the temperature measurement is related to surface emissivity (basically the fraction of heat that gets radiated as light), which can be pretty variable between people (skin grease, cosmetics, sweat). As well as variability in blood flow etc. if it's a forehead measurement. I tried different areas of the body too like cheeks, hands, neck. I did not know that there is such a chance that a new, expensive device can have such an issue, I trusted this device because worked on me and I was worried a few days why the fever is not going down (it was COVID so it was a tense situation). I did not found in the manual of the device or in my online searches at that time cases where same device can have such a variation from person to person. As a conclusion I would advice to also keep a contact thermometer in the house, and double check the IR one(there will be some differences depending the place where you use the thermometer so one should keep that in mind)

rootusrootus 5y ago

AFAIK 1 degree does not count as a fever, especially in children. That's within the range of normal variation.

simion314 5y ago
It is always over 38 Celsius which qualifies as fever where under the tongue is 1 degree less. So if I use it on my I get 36.4 on my son I get 38.4 , even if I try different areas of the body is still converges on the high value.
mc32 5y ago
I think they’re saying it always seems to be off by one degree for their son compared to other thermometers.

xkcd-sucks 5y ago

Re: IR thermometers, the temperature measurement is related to surface emissivity (basically the fraction of heat that gets radiated as light), which can be pretty variable between people (skin grease, cosmetics, sweat). As well as variability in blood flow etc. if it's a forehead measurement. In the antigen test strip case one would hope the materials and lighting to be controlled, so less risk of miscalibration (even if it's a stupid way to satisfy somebody's demand for a test to be made "quantifiable")

simion314 5y ago
>Re: IR thermometers, the temperature measurement is related to surface emissivity (basically the fraction of heat that gets radiated as light), which can be pretty variable between people (skin grease, cosmetics, sweat). As well as variability in blood flow etc. if it's a forehead measurement. I tried different areas of the body too like cheeks, hands, neck. I did not know that there is such a chance that a new, expensive device can have such an issue, I trusted this device because worked on me and I was worried a few days why the fever is not going down (it was COVID so it was a tense situation). I did not found in the manual of the device or in my online searches at that time cases where same device can have such a variation from person to person. As a conclusion I would advice to also keep a contact thermometer in the house, and double check the IR one(there will be some differences depending the place where you use the thermometer so one should keep that in mind)