A Large-Scale Analysis Of Youtube Videos Depicting Everyday Thermal Camera Use

The emergence of low-cost thermographic cameras for mobile devices provides users with new practical and creative prospects. While recent work has investigated how novices use thermal cameras for energy auditing tasks in structured activities, open questions remain about "in the wild" use and the challenges or opportunities therein. To study these issues, we analyzed 1,000 YouTube videos depicting everyday uses of thermal cameras by non-professional, novice users. We coded the videos by content area, identified whether common misconceptions regarding thermography were present, and analyzed questions within the comment threads. To complement this analysis, we conducted an online survey of the YouTube content creators to better understand user behaviors and motivations. Our findings characterize common thermographic use cases, extend discussions surrounding the challenges novices encounter, and have implications for the design of future thermographic systems and tools.