how do infrared cameras work? Why can they see infrared light but we cant? What’s different in the lens of a camera to the lens in our eye?
In: Technology
Basically the parts of the camera that detect and convert light into an image are tuned to the wavelengths of the infrared spectrum. The reason we can’t is simply because we never adapted to be able to see it, most likely because we adapted for long range vision with a large depth of field, and infrared generally doesn’t travel extremely far unless it’s from something like the sun.
As for what’s in the lens that’s different, the obvious answer is that the lens of a camera is made up of materials that aren’t found in our lens. But other than needing to be made of a material that isn’t glass (glass absorbs most wavelengths of infrared) there isn’t anything super special in the lens that lets it “see” infrared.
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