Can a sneeze emit an infared signal?

[nuxvomica]

I'm asking because I was just sitting with the dog watching Diagnosis: Murder after eating my lunch and I sneezed and the cable box shut off. The remote was sitting on an end table next to me but I wasn't touching it. The box is a good 8 feet away from me and the shutoff was immediately after the sneeze so it seemed like cause and effect. The TV was not affected though it went dark immediately cuz it's a "smart" TV and goes dark if the cable shuts off. Note that I do have dental fillings but no braces, bridges or dentures. Is it possible I shut off my cable box with a sneeze?

[Sneederbunk]

1. No,but a fart can.

[nuxvomica]

2. I know I didn't fart because the dog would've left the room

Farts scare him.

[sl8]

3. Snarts, too?

Snart:

[LuckyCharms]

6. If that's true, i just emitted a 45 second long signal.

[MartyTheGreek]

4. Alexa just sent the report apparently...

The sneeze startled the dog causing a static electricity charge that interfered with the Blue Tooth mic on your smartphone which monitors what your watching. Our staff is working diligently on a patch and you may resume watching Diagnosis Murder. Until then, consider blowing your nose more frequently to avoid programming errors.

[LastDemocratInSC]

5. An infrared remote control sends a code.

Even with a talented nose I doubt the required code would be generated. You could do a test, however. If you can get upside down somehow and sneeze again, if the cable box turns on, you'll be on to something that's very impressive.

[CloudWatcher]

7. Cables?

I wonder if you've got a cable (power or tv signal) near where you were sitting and bumped it when you sneezed. If it doesn't have a solid connection ... a bump might be enough to trigger a power-off.

My phone can act as a remote ... maybe you were sitting on a phone? My favorite "senior moment" trick is to sit on my wireless computer mouse and wonder why my laptop is acting weird.

And ... "the remote" ... surely you have more than one remote? Perhaps you were sitting on another remote and it sent something close enough to the 'power off' signal to your box. The infrared signals are coded, but the encoding isn't that robust (and the power on/off signal is one of the simpler ones if I recall correctly).

But of course, the most likely answer is that your dog wanted to go for a walk and took advantage of your sneeze (and you closing your eyes for a moment) to turn off the TV when you weren't looking. Dogs can be very tricky.

[nuxvomica]

8. I agree that the shutoff code is probably not that sophisticated

That's why I almost think I did shut it off with a sneeze. No nearby cables or sitting on remotes or phones and the dog doesn't like walks.

[CloudWatcher]

9. Infrared ...

Well sneezing isn't going to emit infrared, but ... we're emitting infrared all the time anyway! But I wouldn't think that an IR receiver would do much with it.

Hmm, one cool pix (from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-body_radiation):



I wonder if a cheap IR receiver could be so accepting of random IR input that rapid motion of your head could be interpreted as a signal!? Seems seriously ridiculous at first blush, but ... maybe?

It could be fun to hook up an IR receiver and see what kind of 'noise' makes it past the sensor

[In_The_Wind]

10. I sneeze 8 or 9 times without a break.

That should confuse anything tracking me.