IR LED? Good for ... ?

What would one use an infrared LED light for?

Changing the channels on the telly?
Or perhaps make an IR illuminator to use with night vision gear.

night vision stuff , like cameras , or night monoculars.
heat.
psudo medicinal heat light things
remote controls, or other IR data communications.

Most silicon light sensors, including the CCD and CMOS sensors in digital still and video cameras, are sensitive to the IR emitted by IR LEDS, so one popular use is "night vision" surveilance cameras. REAL night-vision gear is also sensitive to IR and can use IR illuminators, though it tends to be used in circumstances where you don't want a light source (even an IR one) located at the observer location. IR LEDs are also used in your TV/VCR/Stereo/etc remote control, and the remote control people have been know to extend the IRRC concept to relatively large arrays of IR LEDs so as to control micro-sized airplanes and such over a gym-sized flying field.

http://spyville.com/in.html
http://www.bgmicro.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=10866
http://www.oyajin.jp/~toko/pic/0063/joystick15.jpg
http://www.oyajin.jp/~toko/pic/0048/mini-irtx02.jpg
http://www.oyajin.jp/~toko/pic/0028/ir-unit08.jpg

My miniDVcam has night shot feature, and I totally need to get a good ir torch. I wonder what the range of the ir sensor is on the camera?

its good for the wii sensor bar

greenlight said:

My miniDVcam has night shot feature, and I totally need to get a good ir torch. I wonder what the range of the ir sensor is on the camera?

Click to expand...

it act the same as any other source, (like using lights in the dark to film) its not how well the chip can pick it up at a distace, as much as it is getting the LIGHT TO that distance, so the camera can pick it up..

one tidbit I read about that is sort of related to your question (so I take advantage of it!) is that most LED's do not emit much energy in the IR part of the spectrum.

this is imporant because it means that you can't just put an IR filter in front of a while light LED and get IR "light" out of it. you need specialized LEDs.

Another interesting tidbit is that apparently we are starting to see different frequency IRs coming out, which might need different equipment to be visible (say an older gen night vision monocular might not be able to see something illuminated by a newer freq IR emitter).

I guess the average person won't have much use for an IR LED since they won't have all the specialized equipment needed to use it. Which is of course why it exists - so "special" people can gain a tactical advantage over average folks!