I can see infrared light...

Hi all. This is a bit of a strange thread coming from me as it's not the kind of thing I would normally post. However, I wanted to hear if any of you had experienced this and how common it is.

I was in a taxi going into town on Saturday night (dark outside) and noticed two rows of dim red light just above the sun visor about 2cm long. As I squinted to work out what it was, I could see that it was a camera which presumably had infra-red night vision. I was surprised at this as I thought infra-red was invisible to the human eye. Anyway, I quickly forgot about it until Sunday night when it popped back into my mind when I was in bed. I had been in the dark for maybe 20 minutes so my eyes had time to adjust. I picked up the TV remote which was by my bed and pressed a button whilst looking at the infra-red LED(?) at the front. I didn't immediately see anything but when I looked out of the corner of my eye, I could see a faint brown/red flicker coming from it.

Is it normal to see some infra-red or do I have super-sensitive eyes?! If anybody with any knowledge on the subject could shed some light (no pun intended) on the matter, it would be much appreciated!

You're a mutant Harry! Laser eyes....bzzzaaap! Honestly though, I can see the "near to red" band of IR too. Helps to have a blue filter to look through. Its probably around 700-750nm, I'm sure you can not see 1200nm though.

reply to post by fiftyfifty


Maybe the bandwidth of the emitted IR-light was a little more broad than usual, so you could see the higher peaks into the red frequency. Or you are just a little out of the standard-luminosity (Wikipedia).

It is usual for the corner, off-center parts of the eye to be more responsive to faint lights, as there is an abundance of rod cells in that area of the eye.

reply to post by XL5


I understand that IR is just on the edge of visible light so the border is going to be blurred. I'm just wondering are some people able to see more into the IR spectrum than others in the same way some can hear higher frequency sounds than others.

I'm not claiming to have extraordinary superhuman powers or anything, just interested as I've never noticed it before. When I start seeing X-Rays, I'll get excited!

I have seen loads of inra red security lights that glow red, does that mean that I am a mutant too. Or is it that we all will see it?

Originally posted by michael1983l
I have seen loads of inra red security lights that glow red, does that mean that I am a mutant too. Or is it that we all will see it?

Note that this is in the 'medical' forum and not the 'paranormal' hence I don't claim to be a mutant. A genuine medical related question seeking a knowledgeable answer. If you have nothing constructive to say.. you know the drill

reply to post by fiftyfifty


I was being serious. The human eye should not pick up infra red, so either we are both having powers that are not usual or that the lights give off visable light as well as infra red. I suspect the second is more likely, but we will never know unless we get a cross section of people and how their eyes respond to the lights. So all in all, I would say that my post adds lots of value to your claim.

Just some warning advice.

IR is just as bad for your eyes as visible bright light. You might not feel it blinding you, but it can damage your eyes if it were strong enough. Not saying your remote can do it, but it's not healthy to stare at things if you can't know the damage that might be done.

You might be seeing part of the visible spectrum emitted by the diode.

Interesting, I found this from 06.

www.physicsforums.com...

I went into a dark room with a tv remote control. Then I waited a couple of minutes until my eyes adjusted to the dark. Then I pressed a button on the remote and I could see a very faint flickering brownish glow eminating from the IR LED.

I'm assuming this was just a sub-harmonic frequency generated by the non-linear characteristic of a diode, and it just happened to fall in the border of visible light.

Anyway, this was very neat. You guys can try it.

this made me laugh

Sometimes I watch radio. But it's in black and white.

reply to post by fiftyfifty


just my opinion - but i dont think you can see infra red light - what you are looking at is IR LAMPS , cheap ones at that

at its most simplistic explaination an IR lamp emits heat , filters in the lens are supposed to block all wavelenghths below 720nm [ usually ] - but good IR filters ,ie efficient [ as in block all visible wavelengths ] cost money - lots of money

i have an IR filter for a hunting lap - that cost £65 [ british pounds ] - and that is efficient - its invisible to the naked eye and gives me amazing clarity with my scope

but cheap IR lamps that only cost a few quid for the entire lamp - are visible as a dull red glow

thats what you are seeing - the flaws of cheap IR lamps

hope this helps

reply to post by winofiend


Thanks for that, I'm not alone then and not crazy for trying to see emote control IR!

I'm hoping that the IR from a camera is not powerful enough to do any damage but I guess staring at any light, as you say is not good for your eyes.

reply to post by michael1983l


Please accept my humble apologies! It's easy to get on the defensive too quickly in here

reply to post by winofiend

IR is just as bad for your eyes as visible bright light. You might not feel it blinding you, but it can damage your eyes if it were strong enough

every single day - your eyes are exposed to the most powerfull IR emmitter in this solar system , does that put the risk in context for you ????

any manmade IR source that the public will encounter is of absolutly minimal risk

reply to post by ignorant_ape


Which of the following is more dangerous to you?

A) A massive forest fire with extreme temperatures and winds around it, it's so strong it will pick up cars and whip them around, and vaporise any person within 50 feet - but it's on the other side of the world.

B) A house fire, in your house, while you're in it.

reply to post by Dispo


an irrelevant question - the topic is IR radiation and eye damage and if faced with a house or forest fire , damage to my eyes from IR would be the least of my worries - because IF its occuring - far more serious damage is being done to other parts of me

so back on topic , shall we ?

reply to post by ignorant_ape


It was an analogy, and you know it was. Please don't be so obtuse, I'm far too tired to engage in a thinly veiled flame war right now.

Infrared is typically broken down into three regions, the near, the mid and the far, with the near infrared being the region nearest the visible light spectrum. Though typically, IR light does not contain sufficient energy to activate the rods in our eyes, there are conditions in which some infrared light is visible. However, this only occurs when the light is particularly concentrated - i.e. in certain lasers.

Most likely, the lamps are emitting near infrared light and/or light at the border of the visible spectrum. What you're seeing probably isn't IR, but red light with a wavelength of about 700nm.