The Worst Lecture I Ever Gave: IR/Info 2016
by Bob Incollingo
Ten years have passed and most of the people who were there are now dead or in hiding, so I can now share my version of the worst PowerPoint lecture ever given. The year was 2015, and the newest thing in the art and science of infrared thermography was a thermal imaging attachment for smart phones that promised to make infrared cameramen of us all. At about the same time, it came to my attention that new smart phone apps were available for download that enabled the user to create anaglyph three dimensional pictures, which could be decrypted and enjoyed with novelty glasses used for that purpose. You’ve seen these 3D glasses, which filter a separate image into each eye, the blue-green “cyan” image filtered out by the red lens, and the red image filtered out by the cyan lens. The result is the perception of a three-dimensional picture that is a lot of fun - all oohs and aahs in the short term, before eye strain sets in.
And so, I conceived a complicated plan whereby I would deliver a tongue-in-cheek PowerPoint slide show presentation to a trade convention of infrared thermographers, purposefully confusing thermal imaging with inapt 3D anaglyphs in the slides accompanying my lecture. Up until then I had never seen an anaglyph slide show, and soon I was to learn why.
I downloaded the anaglyph program for my iPhone and ordered a box of 3D glasses. It took me a while to get the hang of the technology, but finally I prepared a 3D slide show which I brought to the event. I passed the glasses out to the audience and delivered my lecture on “Liability Insurance Law for the Thermographer – Illustrated in Infrared Thermography” deadpan, not letting on that I did not understand the difference between infrared and 3d imaging for the cell phone. I waited for the howls of laughter, planning to keep a straight face through the pandemonium I foresaw when my audience got the joke.
I am still waiting.
Bob Incollingo is a dedicated South Jersey construction attorney who litigates construction, business, and real estate cases in Gloucester County, Burlington County, and Camden County, New Jersey from his office in Cherry Hill. Special thanks to the Infraspection Institute in Burlington City, New Jersey for this topic.
