How To See Infrared Light Easily, At Home!
Infrared Light and Ultraviolet Light, are, as most people know, invisible to the human eye. Meaning, you can’t view IR or UV rays without special equipment as you see normal light. However, here is a simple way to view Infrared Rays with equipment available in most homes. This method is quick and no setup is needed as well.
Equipment Needed:
- Infrared Emitting Device: This includes any Remote Control of a TV, a stereo system or any other electronic equipment. The only necessity is that the IR emitting device like the LED should be visible. This includes most remote controls, so you needn’t worry.
- A Camera With A LCD Screen: You can use a video camera, digital camera, camcorder, webcam or any camera that has a LCD Screen.
How To See The Infrared Rays
This is too simple. Now that you have the above equipments, here is what you do.
- Ensure that the camera is in capture mode. i.e. The LCD Screen should show you the surroundings.
- Now point the Remote so that the LED in it is within the range of the camera. Or simply point the camera at the LED in the remote.
- After this, simply press any button on the remote to emit the IR Light.
- When you look through the LCD Screen, you can see the IR Rays as a blue glow at the LED on the Remote Control! [as shown above]
As long as you keep the button pressed, you can see the IR Light. Also, in a dark room it would be more distinct to notice. If you cannot see it in your camera, try using another camera. There was no problem with the Canon Powershot A550 I have and it worked instantly!
And you need not worry, this process won’t damage your camera or its lens. Also, you can only see the IR through the LCD Screen and not through the optical viewfinder, so it works only on Digital Cameras. Do try it and let me know if it works for you as well!
If you find this useful, do consider sharing it.. Thanks for reading!
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23 People have responded. What about you?
Simple tutorial. I never knew this before.
This is really cool! Thanks for the cool tutorial. Although, in both the remotes I used, the ray flickers, instead of appearing steady.
@Nirmal and Sarat: Glad you guys liked it! And Sarat, I think that is the case with every remote since the IR light is sent out like that!
This is really easy to do! And works for me too! thanks for sharing
Sounds interesting! Now that I’ve got nothin else to do, I could try this!!!
great post
Cool! Will try this as soon as I get back home
Hey thats is a cool tutorial. I really did not know this… Will try this definetely when I go to my home town…
Glad you liked it, Shiva! You could try it on webcams as well!
Capturing lighted incense sticks(while swinging them) in dark with camera also gives a cool result…
Thanks for your comments Rockraikar.. Interesting trick with the camera! I’ve done it with the LEDs in my computer!
I never knew this before. This is really interesting article.
If I’m in a dark place, I can see infrared light without using any kind a camera. Maybe I have better color vision than most people…
That’s something new to me! IR light is in the invisible part of the color spectrum. If you are able to view it, that’s really astonishing!
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
That’s interesting. These are very simple to do, I’ll have to give it a shot.
Do tell me how it went, thanks for your comments!
What if there are lots of IR lights, like from night vision cameras or or scopes all around you in the dark- wouldn’t you be able to see what might look like light jumping around, and maybe be able to capture flittering light static stuff with your camera? Coz that has happened to me. Anyway i think everyones vision is different, and some people may just dismiss variations of light they see because they have no explanation for it.
I do agree that people have different visual capabilities.. However, seeing IR light would be pretty impossible with the naked eye, if you are implying that..
I haven’t tried multiple sources at once, so I’ve just got to assume how that would turn out!
Thanks for your thoughtful comments!
Alot of people can see IR i can see it clear as day!!
I also can see IR. Just discovered it. I was in completely dark room and tried few remotes and I saw it. It was pretty dim but it worked. You can try it in dark room, if your remote has some cover on IR led you should remove it for better results.
the light you are seeing from your remote is probably a trace amount of light that is not in the infrared range coming from the bulb. Also to answer earlier posts, the reason the light flickers is that in order to transmit the multiple buttons on your remote, for each button the light flickers in a slightly different way, this allows for many combinations of buttons
I’ve done this before, and I love this experiment, but here’s my question: So the camera can pick up the IR light, but if it displayed as the exact frequency it’s picking up, we still wouldn’t be able to see it, so the camera has to change the frequency that you see. Furthermore, since you see the light in the remote as purple, and infrared is on the opposite side of the spectrum (closest to red), I’m wondering if you are actually seeing some harmonic of the infrared light. Any ideas?
I can also see infrared light from remotes night vision survailance cameras and the like. I’ve also noticed I tend to have better night vision than other people, whether this is related or not, I’d be interested to know.