Can someone explain why this happens to my wife?

um….

she moves really slowly?

Simple. She’s a vampire.

ive been reading this question over and over and i have no idea. Perhaps she just does not hit the sensory areas right and u happen to witness it more often than not

GQ.. I have this problem with automatic sinks and paper towel dispensers. There will be a row of sinks that won’t work for me, then someone else arrives and it works fine.

Maybe she needs to move closer to whatever she wants to activate and with a little more speed – maybe even wave closer to the sensor to set it off.

She’s a ghost !!

Maybe she’s very self-conscious and too hyper-aware of the sensor being there. I think the automatic sensor is designed to be triggered by natural movement. Being self-conscious may cause her to move awkwardly.

It might be similar to my husband’s problem. When he sits down in front of our computer, it freezes up instantly. Not every single time, but much more often than it happens to anyone else. I tell him his brain waves are funky, or the computer senses his bad vibes. We can’t figure out the real reason for it—maybe it is coincidence. I guess it’s possible there are some people who affect the things around them differently from the majority of people.

Maybe she’s got funky electric generation or something. I met a woman who accidentally used Raid all over her skin instead of Off!, which caused her to be hyper-hyper-hyper sensitive to all things electric. Like you couldn’t bring a cell phone in the house sensitive. One of the oddities is that she goes through watches like they’re going out of style—something about her electrical whatever causes watches to stop working after wearing them for a short time.

She doesn’t seem to do things any differently than anyone else. I always tell her it’s because she’s electric.

@MissAnthrope That is going to give me nightmares. The idea of being covered with Raid disturbs me so deeply! Ugh!

Sorry. :( If nothing, it’s made me very cautious about chemical poisoning.

Is she cold? Like, extremities are chilly?

My grandpa couldn’t wear a watch because it would always stop. I don’t know the answer to your question, but I would suspect it has to do with one’s electrical field or something.

No to the cold.

I have the same problem myself, the damned sensors don’t work for me half the time. I’m a large guy, too (6’5”, 230 lbs).

no answer, but i have seen this happen to many people but work for others

It is most likely that the types of sensors that this happens on are passive infrared detectors. It is quite possible that your wife’s body heat is outside of the range that the sensors can pick up fairly often.

There are many other types of active and passive detectors but the most common among doors, faucets, and dispensers is the passive infrared detector because it uses very little energy. The detectors are calibrated to trigger when enough infrared light falls on the sensor. If she is small, has slightly less body heat than average, or simply approaches the sensors in a way that does not allow the sensor to pick up enough infrared light then the sensor does not activate.

I’ve noticed on several occasions that I could not activate a specific sensor at my local Wal-Mart. When the door was replaced with similar, but newer equipment, the sensor no longer misses me. I generally have a much lower than average body heat so it was most likely that the old sensor did not have enough range to consistently pick up my body heat. Usually cheaper sensors have much less range and reliability (as is found in faucet sensors where multiple waves are sometimes required to get flow going).

I would be very surprised if she did not consistently get active microwave sensor doors to open for her though. I’d have to say she must be stealth if that was the case. It’s harder to find the microwave sensors anymore, though they used to be used quite a lot on supermarket entrances. The passive infrared sensors are just much cheaper to buy and keep running than active methods even at the expense of not functioning as reliably.

My Wife will sometimes move with smoothness and grace with lots of Fluid Movements and things won’t work right away, but then she Jerks and they work- Quirky but for me, Unexplainable!

@phil196662 Passive IR detectors require a sudden change in the IR radiation they receive for the switch to trigger.

Have you heard about Street Light Intereference Syndrome? The link may not be a definitive answer (since people are divided on the authenticity of this “condition”), but it may be a clue to your wife’s condition.

There are devices that test one’s body current and electrical emision. Everyone does have their own “personal bubble or space”. Hers is unique. Find out more about it.

I have the same problem. Though doors usually work for me, automatic sinks, towel dispensers, and toilets always ignore me. Hmpf. I have the opposite of the “watch situation”, though. As long as I wear a watch consistently, the battery never dies. If I skip a week, I come back to a dead watch.

I always chalk it up to being special. ;)

you are special @augustlan

Peoples hand temperatures vary widely. If the device is using an IR sensor and your hand temperature is below it’s lower cutoff, the sensor will not trigger. Try this experiment: If the hand sensor doesn’t respond, rub your hands together for about 30 seconds, then try again. The friction having warmed your hands. I found that my hands are normally cooler than the setpoint of many IR sensors.

It’s a hassle to have to rub your hands together, but it works.