Night Vision (IR) cameras - Page 2

Enforcer · 09-29-2003, 11:29 AM

Might find this interesting

http://www.oxley.co.uk/nvis-vehicles/

Magnezium · 10-07-2003, 05:42 PM

Got a better idea for you guys. Look up OLEDs. They're a new technology and kinda hard to get your hands on, but it would change the way you're going about this. I promise.

OLED is a film that is COMPLETELY see-thru and is an LCD screen. It is flexible and has the same characteristics as the plastic used on coke bottles. Same flexibility. Same thickness. It's very cool. You can actually just adhear it to your dashboard or windshield. On your dash, it's far brighter than an LCD and will reflect just fine, day or night, without a ghosting film on the windshield. If you put the OLED on the windsheild, it might not look good, but you'd be able to see right through the parts that aren't used by text or graphics.

Mg.

fluffy2097 · 10-07-2003, 05:59 PM

OLED technology is in it's infancy. Nobody here will be able to get their hands on an OLED of any size and quality that would be usefull for a display. If you could, it would cost several thousand dollars.

perhaps in a few years OLED might be usefull. Not now. Just because you see something about some bit of tech on slashdot doesn't make it usefull , practical or available.

fluffy2097 · 10-07-2003, 08:10 PM

In other news on this subject, I bought an old sony handy cam off ebay so now I have an authentic night vision camera for my car (or seeing through peoples clothing)

chut · 10-07-2003, 08:26 PM

I'd like to know what model handycam that is?
Peter

fluffy2097 · 10-07-2003, 08:36 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by chut

I'd like to know what model handycam that is?
Peter

It's a Sony Handy Cam CCD-TR416 Nightshot/180x 8mm

I can't wait for it to arrive.

Magnezium · 10-07-2003, 08:53 PM

I didn't think you'd be that oblivious. I didn't just see that on slashdot (whatever that is). I'm an electronics contracter. I get my hands on LOTS of things most people don't. It's my job. Kodak has been using OLED in one of their new digital cameras. It's not as pricey as you think, and it's certainly not hard to find. However, it is in it's infancy.
You talk down to me like you know what your talking about. Do some more research before you talk about something you've only read about ages ago.

Mg.

fluffy2097 · 10-07-2003, 09:41 PM

Please. Show me where I can purchase an OLED display. Lets say 7 inches as that is the smallest that people seem to want here. The largest I could find was 3.3 inches. At http://onestopdisplays.net/main.php

Furthermore, even if the display itself can be clear. All the wiring that controls it is not (as can be clearly seen at the above link). The only way to cleanly mount the screen to your windshield without having wires running across it would be to have an OLED that was the size of your windshield, that way you could run the wires out of sight. Not affordable in the least.

OLED's also currently have a very slow reaction time (50ms) according to the reviews I've read of them (tom's hardware review of the Kodak LS633, link below).

OLED's have very short lifespans as well, after 5000 hours it will have lost half it's brightness. If I'm permanently mounting something to my windshield I want it to last a long time.

OLED's are not practical. Nor do they have anything to do with night vision, the topic of this thread.

Tom’s hardware review of the Kodak LS633’s OLED screen
http://www6.tomshardware.com/consume...apixel-05.html

Custommx3 · 10-08-2003, 12:59 PM

Just looked up some info, My Pioneer 9200R has an OLED display. Didnt realize they were so thin.

Magnezium · 10-12-2003, 03:53 AM

fluffy, You're really critical about this, but you tend to not understand much about my original post. It's not off topic. The reason for the post was that you could put your night vision cam's output on the OLED. There was a prvious post before mine that stated something about a HUD. That's the post I was replying to. Aslo, I never said anything about wires. And by the way, you can use a thin guage wire so you wouldn't see it unless you were looking really hard. I do it for much of my electronics.

OLED, from what I heard, doesn't have a short life span. Someone elses review that contradicts what I've read makes me think twice, but I would still rather research that before I make any comments about it's life span.

As for size, you don't need anything begger than 3 inches. The HUD on the C5 Corvette is 3 inches and looks fine to me. So is the one on the Pontiac Grand Prix GTP and that was is perfect in my opinion.

You want a 7 inch OLED screen? Make it yourself. I'm not researching that. I'm just saying keep your eyes peeled.

By the way, LED lights use 70% less power. That makes this practical in my eyes.

Don't start crap with me, I'm only trying to help. You're not the only one that can do research. The people on this forum are quite good at doing research. I'm just pointing them in other directions.

Mg.

darkone_05 · 08-05-2005, 01:15 AM

Ok guys, here is your answer for the whole ir camera (and yes i know this thread hasn't been active for some time). I am new to the whole carputer scene, but I am not so new with computers in general. Recently, I hacked my webcam to only show infra red light. Not so hard to do. This can be done with alot of inaging devices, but for the sake of a carputer, a high quality webcam with usb 2.0 or firewire and high framerate would prolly work well. Just google for "infra red webcam hack" and I am sure you will find pictures. All you need to do is open up your device, find the little bit of ir filter, and replace it with 2 little peices of completely exposed film negative (the blask stuff at the end of the roll when you get your pictures back from being developed). Put the cam back together and you ahve an infra red cam. The exposed film pieces will filter out all visible light, leaving only the Infra-red for the cam to see. If you go out to the net and find some HIGH intensity IR leds, u should be able to build yourself an ir lamp. Coupled with the cam mounted on your dash and the lamp hidden in your grill, you should be ready for all kinds of trouble.

KyleYankan · 08-05-2005, 02:34 AM

To the person concerned about cops seeing the IR. As long as it's during normal driving, it wouldnt matter. the regular headlights would cover it. Would only matter when trying to escape, and even then, it would be reflected IR.

One thing to consider: alot of shops online sell IR bulbs. I own an IR flashlight. Modify 10 of them to work off a relay.

Killroy · 08-14-2005, 06:11 AM

I've jsut finished installing a security system in a night club. Part of that was one IR cam with it's own illuminating filters. We used this cam: http://www.trendnet.com/en/products/TV-IP300.htm

It works well technically, although the support and software a ****. We ended up creatign our own interface usign the activeX/Java access methods. It also has a mic htat you cannot disable in the software so you might have to solder it out.

I must say though that those IR LEDs are very powerfull and create a big aptch of light in complete darkness. The also get frightfull hot. Not sure how well this would mount in a car, but it has it's own webserver and computing power, which might come in handy.

shotgunefx · 08-14-2005, 06:40 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Seraph

Those things are fun. Not great but fun. They are also no longer made.

L

There was an article in Maxim saying you could still do it with a filter from http://www.irfilters.com/

Juliemac · 08-14-2005, 08:01 AM

I just ordered a 3cm x 10cm IR camera that will be mounted behind the front grill of my car. They advertise a 30' range of the active IR leds as well.
It will display on a 5.6" color LCD in the dash (once I move the tach and speedo over, Oh and the idiot lights..).
Then press a button and the rear vision cam switches to the FLIR.

My god. My car is becoming more like the cockpit of an F16 all the time....