Looking for an IR camera

Jennek Geels's icon

Hi,

we are looking for an IR camera.
we want to capture a scene that is lit by IR LEDs either 880 nm or
950 nm.

we have experimented with a webcam:
- remove the built in IR blocking filter
- replace it by a day light blocking filter
but we have found that the sensitivity of the CCD at 880 nm is only
10-15%
of the sensitivity at visible wavelengths. This calls for a huge
amount of LEDs.

Are there any monochrome cameras with a spectral sensitivity that
matches
IR LED lighting at 880 nm or 950 nm more closely?

other criteria
- resolution minimal VGA
- framerate 30 fps
- digital interface (firewire USB2 ethernet)

Any pointers appreciated
aTdHvAaNnKcSe
-jennek

ovt visuals's icon

You may want to try lighting the scene with a tungsten light with many
layers of deep red gel (other colors would probably work too) on it.
The IR light gets through fine and casts a nice red glow. I've done it
and it works great. I've used Q-see cameras, they're cheap and work
fine for my needs.

Brian

niemeyer's icon

I am looking for some help getting multiple audio streams into
MaxMSP/jitter via VoIP, or via Modem, so two or three people can call
into Jitter and make things happen there with their voices. Ideally,
Jitter would also be able to call people from a list of numbers. This
is for a Mac OSX G5 system.

problems so far:
VOip only runs one conversation at a time, and conference calls mix all
voices into the same channels
Modems are not recognized as audio devices

Thanks for your help, Greg

Christopher Baker's icon

Golan Levin et al. used IR illumination and tracking for "Messa di
Voce". The website has a very informative technical requirements
list for performance or installation.

These pages list equipment used and include diagrams, IR setup, IR
filters, sources, etc.

If you are not familiar with this work, you should take a look
anyway. It is quite lovely.

Cheers,
Christopher

Jennek Geels's icon

Many thanks, Christopher,
this is really helpful. It pointed me to a kind of
surveillance camera from Sony, and on the sony site I found
a product line based on a Sony CCD that has increased near IR
sensitivity.

And you are right, it is a lovely piece.
-jennek

ovt visuals's icon

Hi Jennek,

Can you pass along which camera model you found? I'm also very
interested.

Thanks,

Brian

Wesley Smith's icon

I believe it's the Sony HAD ex-view chip. It works very well for IR.
You'll need a DV converter to bring it into the computer though.

wes

Christopher Baker's icon

Hey Wes (or others),

do you have a link to a model?

Thanks,
Christopher

Wesley Smith's icon
Christopher Baker's icon

Great thanks.

CB

Jennek Geels's icon

Indeed, the sony Chip to look for is the Exview or Exwave HAD CCD.
I am still researching the cameras that use this chip,
and which one fits my requirements best.
Supercircuits does not seem to ship outside the US ?

I have also found that Sanyo has a CCD with increased IR sensitivity.
I'll report back if and when I found something useful.
-jennek

jackit2@yahoo.com's icon

Hi,

Does anyone have any more reports on using these cameras?
I'm looking for a suitable camera to track body movement thermally..

yair reshef's icon

the cameras this thread discuss are in the *near* infra red range, thermal
imaging operate at much higher range, which needs special sensors which are
liquid cooled, usually starting at 15,000$
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_imaging

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 6:43 PM, John Callaghan wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> Does anyone have any more reports on using these cameras?
> I'm looking for a suitable camera to track body movement thermally..
>