4 ms·
This reminds me of a chat room interaction I had maybe 25 years ago. The other person was adamant that humans can't see the infrared from TV remotes, and I was
by eel 5mo ago
This reminds me of a chat room interaction I had maybe 25 years ago. The other person was adamant that humans can't see the infrared from TV remotes, and I was adamant that I could. It was pretty a widespread belief (even in school science books) at that time that humans couldn't see infrared. Since then more science was done to prove that, in fact, some humans can see some infrared under some conditions.
I share that mainly to state that humans are amazing and have a wide and inconsistent range of capabilities (and sometimes even mutating into new capabilities!) Personally, I will always hesitate to say "nobody" and I lean towards "no typical human" instead. :)
- lukan 5mo agoI suppose this also depends on the types of remote controls? There are some where I can see red and some where I cannot.
- MisterTea 5mo agoThe faint red glow is actual red light as many IR LED's (esp the ones used in cameras for night illumination) are close to the visible spectrum and have some visible light emission.
- formerly_proven 5mo ago850nm is easily visible, but most remotes are 940nm, which is also visible as a faint purple glow but the source needs to be really bright.
- dtgriscom 5mo agoIsn't infrared, by definition, wavelengths beyond what people can see?
- jibal 5mo agoWhich people? And no, it's not defined that way: "radiation having a wavelength between about 700 nanometers and 1 millimeter"