Special gogles to see bodily fluids with uv light?

I was watching CSI the other night and I noticed that they were using a UV flashlight in combination with some kind of red tinted goggles to look for the presence of blood or other bodily fluids. I happen to own a UV flashlight that I use for scorpion hunting and I was wondering if anyone knew what kind of filter it was that the guys were using on the show to help the bodily fluids floresce (sp?).
I have noticed that even without the filter goggles I can still detect bodily fluids that have dried. My carpet cleaner got a great workout after I got the light. But "fresh" fluids don't show up so well.
So anyone know what kind of filter that they use and where I can get one?

P.S.- Don't take a UV flashlight into a motel room unless you want to sleep in your car. Ignorance is bliss, TRUST ME!

The red/orange tinted goggles should protect your eyes against UV-light. People who work often with UV-light wear them.

How do you hunt scorpions? (There aren't any scorpions where I live)

Scorpions glow in uv light. They are nocturnal animals so all you gotta do is go out with a uv light at night and look for 'em. Though this time of year is not the best. Springtime is the premium season for scorp hunting in my opinion.

The main reason for the orange filter lenses is contrast enhancement of the fluorescing light. There's also some protection against UV light, but most LED lights are comparatively 'weak', i.e. high in wavelength, and the danger is comparatively low, unless you shine directly in eyes for long times.

On CSI, they use those orange filters also with blue light (even less danger here), and sometimes they use it attached to the light. Not very effective as protection (goggles should be worn), but works as contrast enhancement filter.

If you just want to try the contrast enhancement effect, you can use the orange filter from the Mag C/D filter pack (comes with orange, red, blue filter and a rubber hood for attaching them, IIRC).

The filters are sort of like 'Blue Blockers', blocking the visible part of NEAR UV emissions. This will make items that only floresce very slightly more visible since they are no longer overpowered by the blue light emitted in the visible part of the spectrum.

The purpose of the goggles is to block out all of the visible near UV spectrum and allow the light generated by the items which are fluorescing to pass through and not be swamped out by the near visible UV.

I have an old Arc grey kit (thanks Peter) which I have put a royal blue Luxeon into. The Royal Blue is specked to be 455nm which is the closest of all Luxeon products to UV spectrum.

I also have a pair of Laser-Guard Argon laser goggles. They are specked to have a n attenuation of OD15 at 488nm and an OD of 11 at 514nm. I originally bought them on Ebay for use with a green laser but found they work great for this purpose as well.




I thought it would be cool to post some photos to help illustrate the point. Of course the bathroom would be a perfect place to pick up bodily fluids, but to my wifes relief I did not wanting to make photos of my dirty bathroom public. So I instead chose to go to a public restroom for a photo shoot. This restroom was actually quite nice and apeared very clean to the naked eye.




As you can see the intensity of the royal blue drowns out any visible fluorescing done by the bodily fluids.




But placing the goggles in front of the camera lens reviles what is seen when the near UV is filtered out.





I hope this helps a bit.
Brlux

That's cool in a gross sort of way.
Nice to seesome pics to illustratethe situation.
I'm gonna go get some orange goggles

That way madness lies!
When I want to clean my kitchen and bathroom really well I put on my orange 'safety specs', turn off the room light and clean by uv light. Takes quite a while and you need pretty strong cleaning agents.

It's important not to be too clean. A house that is too clean has to be kept too clean else it's dirty. A house that is relatively clean is more easy to keep relatively clean and you build up a good resistance to bugs etc.

Al

YIKES!!! I just dug up my yellow shooting specs and fired up the UV LED light in the laundry room. Month ago I dropped a full 3 gallon jug of liquid laundry detergent and when it hit the floor it ruptured almost explosively spewing liquid all over. It took rivers of water to clean that up as it was the "HE" (High Efficiency) type which is very concentrated. Tonights foray revealed just how much got left behind. WOW!!! That room looks like a bright glowing green Jackson Pollock work. The yellow lenses made a huge difference.

So my question is what does one use to clean up a soap spill??? Liquid dirt?

On the matter of hygenie take a look at this article: http://www.usaweekend.com/05_issues/050313/050313healthsmart.html

I had to chide my mother for being a "bad" parent and depriving us kids of filth.

I have taken great comfort when traveling to South America and parts of Europe to notice that the parents there are not buying into the craze here in the US where parents must always carry a 5000 count pack of anti-bacterial wipes everywhere to make sure little Johnny is playing on a sterile surface.

Geesh!!! Let the kids have some exposure. Getting a few sniffles and sneezes as a child builds a strong immune system.

Size15's said:

That way madness lies!
When I want to clean my kitchen and bathroom really well I put on my orange 'safety specs', turn off the room light and clean by uv light. Takes quite a while and you need pretty strong cleaning agents.

It's important not to be too clean. A house that is too clean has to be kept too clean else it's dirty. A house that is relatively clean is more easy to keep relatively clean and you build up a good resistance to bugs etc.

Al

Click to expand...

I purchased some orange googles and gave them to wifey along a modded fenix w/blue luxeon

I asked: do you think the kitchen is clean?
She replied: of course
I said: turn off the lights, put this googles on and look again (as I turned on the flashlight)
She: WOW!

:lolsign:

Pablo