Homemade Infrared Goggles! For Under $10

Step 2: The Gels:

You will need a specific type of blue gel to make this work. The theatrical lighting gel is called "Congo Blue" and it is manufactured by the two most popular gel companies, LEE (C181) and Rosco (#382)

You can find them HERE

Comments

[jagdterrier]

whether it will be able to see clearly at night using IR LEDs if I make. Best regards from Serbia

[wjbeaty]

No, the goggles only block the visible part of sunlight. At night, there is no sunlight. Just try IR LEDs, and don't use any goggles. Also see the original project FAQ at http://amasci.com/amateur/irgoggl.html

Besides "Congo Blue", also experiment with "Deep Blue" and other blues.

[milsorgen]

 its tough getting enough wattage from IR LEDs for all but the darkest lighting conditions

[wupme]

In my Rosco Swatchbook Congo Blue is 181 and not 382, primary red is 106 and not 27. Did you mix them up, or did they change theyr numbers? I doubt they would, that could lead to serious issues i think.

[wjbeaty]

probably Lee swatchbook, not Rosco

[czenob]

could you make these into night vision by putting a infrared led into, lets say, a maglite w/ led conversion and use both together? just saying because the flashlight would put off infrared and goggles would pick that up right?

[megabyte405]

No - the goggles "pick up" nothing - they just filter out most visible light so that your eyes accommodate to "darkness" letting you see almost-infrared (not NIR, since NIR _is_ IR) that you always see but is normally dimmer than the light being filtered out. You need a sensor that is actually sensitive to IR to build nightvision.

[geekdude]

the theory is that we can see part of the infrared that is hidden by the rest of the ambient light in the day, if it were pitch dark we would not need the goggles only a powerfull enough infrared light, but then everyone arround could see in ir

[wjbeaty]

Exactly, and that's part of my original project: using Congo Blue filters to convert an incandescent floodlamp into an "IR vision" generator in a darkened room. This doesn't work nearly as well as welding goggles and sunlight. Even so, it's really odd to see black clothing turn red-grey, and human eyes turn huge, black, and alien.

IR Goggles? IR Floodlight!
http://amasci.com/amateur/irgogg2.html#flood

[Light_Lab]

Bill is absolutely correct that by heavily suppressing the so called visible spectrum from ~400 to ~750 nm the normally "swamped" NIR sensitivity of the eyes is allowed to come into play. As there is more IR coming from the Sun than visible light this effect is very strong in sunlight.
It is easy to prove that the eyes are actually recieving NIR when wearing the filters Bill pioneered. Typical organic fabric dyes are NIR transparent so if you look at most dark fabrics when wearing the filters the fabrics will appear light coloured.
I have written my name on on my black camera case with a black Sharpie felt tip pen and it is virtually invisible to the unaided eye. Yet it appears perfectly clearly when wearing IR passband filters in sunlight or under a stong incandescent light. This is because Sharpie pens (and perhaps other pens) contain a NIR opaque dye(s) wheras the black dye in the nylon camera bag is NIR transparent. This phenomena could only occur if the NIR sensitivity of the eyes was a fact.
In fact recent work has shown that a large percentage of the population even have a higher sensitivity than previously thought at the other end of the spectrum; the UV.

[karthikkamath93]

if it was real IR it could pick up IR radiation from living things and not just give colouful vision

[baglieg]

The IR emitted by the human body is too dim to see with the human eye.  These goggles only let you see very very bright IR, like the IR in sunlight.

[cablemonkey]

Reflected IR and emitted thermal energy are not the same thing.

[baglieg]

Not really.  Sunlight is thermal radiation.  Any object as hot as the Sun would glow the same colour as sunlight.  The light from an incandescent light bulb is the thermal radiation from its hot filament.  The light of a fire is its thermal radiation; if you look at a candle flame, the blue part is energy emitted directly by the chemical reaction, but the yellow part is the thermal radiation from the hot gases it emits.

Any object at the temperature of a human body does indeed radiate infrared light, but it's far too dim for a human eye to see.  With or without these goggles, you can't see the thermal radiation of anything unless it's well over 400 degrees Celsius (750 degrees Fahrenheit).

[sephirothx666]

yea i agree people don't send out IR radiation only thermal

[czenob]

like using a normal flshlight but no one else could see it

[amando96]

wow maybe that could work...

[shammallamaman]

You would need a super powerful ir light, try using a camera to pick it up instead

[czenob]

cameras work but i was thinking maybe a night-time airsoft war or paintball

[shammallamaman]

yeah, i did something that would hold up to something like that, i got two old camera phones, and mounted them on some work goggles, then i got about 10 ir leds from remote controls and made a head light sort of thing

[danm95]

how about not on the internet?

[nbcgod]

Hey Kipkay, Do you know where I can buy some of this theatrical lighting gel? NBCGod

[dashman94]

I found some on Amazon.com heres the link.
http://www.amazon.com/Rosco-Roscolux-Effects-Lighting-Filter/dp/B000B75UHA

and the same for shamuslauer.

[shamuslauer]

same

[dashman94]

Does anyone know where to get that gel stuff online?

[Arch_Laughter]

Would the colors that this site provide work?

http://www.rosco.com/us/technotes/filters/lee_equiv.asp

How do I buy the colors from the site if the colors work?

[Slavic Gliterrati]

B&H Photo Video has Rosco Congo Blue.