Uses for IR Laser pointer

If you shine an IR laser pointer on a tooth, the tooth lights up, revealing cavities and fillings, perhaps as nonradioactive imaging. The IR laser pointer also lights up cavities in various nonliving materials, perhaps revealing their depths. I recently bought a flashlight with UV & IR LEDs (search shopping.google.com for ). because I was interested in a cheap way to image building problems (UV shows moisture, IR shows heat leaks, but in this case it lights them up.). Certainly it is no replacement for a thermal imager worth thousands of dollars or a tooth x-ray, but might it, in some cases, be "appropriate technology"?

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

formatting link
formatting link
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

Reply to
vjp2.at
Loading thread data ...

in a

I dont think so, a tv remote is IR and it lights nothing, IR is a spectrum you cant see.

Reply to
ransley

That's right. IR is not in the visible spectrum. I got curious though and pointed my red laser level at my teeth and saw zilch.

It is possible to see things differently with different light sources. UV for example causes some things to fluoresce and be seen in the visible spectrum.

Reply to
Frank

Just in case this isn't a joke, read these three word a few times until you see what's wrong with them and work from there...

(Hint: the problem is related to why a flashlight with IR LED's would be useless to most people.)

Reply to
Larry Fishel

I missed that, an IR laser is good foor nutin

Reply to
ransley

Designating targets?

Reply to
aemeijers

in a

disclaimed.}---

That's right, unless something fluoresces under either IR or UV light, it won't look much different. We had similar claims made for IR theromometer being able to detect studs behind walls because the studs transmitted more heat than the insulation. Just more internet nonsense.

The only thing a cheap IR thermometer will tell you is when you are approaching a window or door. Look at any photograph of a house made with a thermal imager and you'll see that there's always significant heat leakage around windows. As for finding studs, good luck with that. I've been playing around my IR thermo since that last post and about the only thing it's good for is detecting windows and doors - which you don't need a gadget of any kind to find. I certainly wouldn't ever use it to try to decide where a stud inside the house was. Besides, *inside* the house, where you are most likely to want to find a stud, the temperature is equalized so no difference would be seen.

You can look at these images and see what I mean. Doors and windows stand out easily in pictures made by expensive thermal imaging cameras. Not too many studs are visible, at least from what I can see.

formatting link
formatting link
formatting link

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

Frank wrote in news:i8thf4$adh$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

IR shows up with a "night vision" or "starlight" scope. And a thermal imager,if you can afford one of those.... ;-)

those IR LEDs emit shortwave IR,and heat loss is long wave IR,viewable only with thermal imagers..

Reply to
Jim Yanik

Indeed yes. I've got a starlight scope (cheap Russkie surplus) that would allow me to "paint" a target at night without revealing my position or that the target is "lit up." Just found an IR laser module for sale for $20. Hmmmm...

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

Thanks. I'm thinking the cracks (eg in wall) become like waveguides. There was no paperwork with the flashlight, only on the net ad that I bought it from. Some ads don't say IR and yet their flashlight looks identical so I am not sure how IR the IR is. But my teeth do light up like they are an echo chamber for the light that hits them (highighting non-tooth material by its darkness). Most transluscent stuff I point the pointer at light up the same way. I think the label might better say near-IR and near-UV, because a lot of med tek makes such a distinction. The plaque on my teeth looks yellow on the UV setting, while the teeth look purple. There are a lot of equipment which use UV and IR for construction, but they have fancy signal processing software to enhance the image. I know an engineer who looks at how your house temperature changes during the day to figure out where your insulation might have failed. Still, given that this flashlight is five hundred times cheaper than the fancy equipment, it is worth exploring.

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

formatting link
formatting link
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

Reply to
vjp2.at

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.