Okay, a buddy of mine saw this doohicky for sale on eBay and asked me if it was BS or not. I don’t have the optics/physics/tinkering background to say yea or nay. So I thought I’d toss it out to you all: is it possible to see through certain things in the daytime just by slapping an IR filter onto a camcorder?
(The “certain things” of interest to my buddy “Bob” are left to the reader’s imagination. And you’re married, “Bob” – For shame!)
Yes it is, under certain conditions. Some camcorders have CCD detectors that are sensitive to infrared (IR) light. If you put a filter over the lens that passes IR and blocks visible wavelengths, then the detector will “see” an image in infrared and set its exposure accordingly. Some clothing is remarkably transparent to IR, notably wet bathing suits. Such images are amazingly revealing — what you see is the body beneath the clothing, particularly the hot parts. This was a big news story some years ago.
Though I never tried it, ( I didn’t have a 35mm camera in school) certain common synthetic fabrics are known to be transparent to IR. There is IR film commonly on the market and was quite popular on college campi when synthetic swim suits and other garments were introduced. Many mysteriously revealing pictures appeared of the young co-eds…
as for the video cameras, I have heard mixed reviews and believe there are websites dedicated to the topic though the practice may be in conflict with the laws of certain communities.
Way back in the stone age, 1977 to be exact, I worked at an aerospace company that used (but did not develop) a “FLIR”, or “Forward Looking InfraRed” video camera. We used to watch the ladies as they walked down the sidewalk. You might say it was interestin’ …
Thanks very much, everybody! I wonder why they didn’t use this technology to make waves in that 1980s Roy Scheider helicopter movie, Blue Thunder? It had an extended scene about IR use to peep on an unsuspecting female, but only at night if I recall. Since the whole movie was supposed to be a moral lesson on the dangers of technology eliminating our privacy, I’d think that daytime IR use would have been a key part of the plot.
At “Bob’s” request, I’ve modified his name. He also instructs me that his ONLY interest was in safeguarding his young daughter from the dangers of modern lechery. Best buy lots of heavy cotton clothing for her, “Bob!”