ACT Apricot keyboards, or infra-red japes

[Gordon JC Pearce]

Jules Richardson wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-05-19 at 22:04 +0100, Adrian Graham wrote:
> 
>>Hi folks,
>>
>>Recently I've picked up the bits of the infra-red Apricot keyboard that 
>>Jules investigated at my place and left in bits all over one of my 
>>sofas :)
> 
> 
> Hey, the task was merely to see how it came apart - you were on yer own
> after that point! ;)
> 
> 
>>I know CCD based video cameras can see infra-red......
> 
> 
> Hmm, you got me curious there... had a poke around via google; some
> digital cameras seem perfectly capable of it, but you need an IR filter
> over the lens (presumably you need this for a camcorder too)

Not really - if you use a camcorder with an IR remote, and you stand in 
shot with it, you can clearly see the LED winking away.

I've removed the IR filter from my Philips PWC680K webcam before, and 
got some surprising results - one pair of black jeans I have shows up as 
white!  You can use a bit of completely black film from the end of a 
roll of negatives as a very effective IR pass filter.  It will block out 
the visible light but you'll see near IR.  The first time I did this I 
wasn't entirely sure it was working, until I started to look closely at 
it...

Gordon