iPhone X Blue lights from IR/dot sensors on X

[Fireball Dragon]

i really couldn’t find the answer to this on another thread, but here goes.

So in many videos I have seen small blue lights flicker from the notch, which I assumed are coming from the IR and/or dot sensors. But I’ve never seen this behaviour from my X.

What are they and do they only show in certain types of light?

 

[Vermifuge]

Just the IR. Your eye can't perceive it but it's picked up by the sensor on the camera and converted into visible light when you watch those videos. Nothing to be concerned about.

 

[orev]

It is the face scanning light which is infrared. The video camera sensors can see this light, and it shows up on the video. Your naked eyes can't see infrared, which is why you don't see it. This happens every time you use FaceID to unlock your phone.

 

[fred98tj]

It is the face scanning light which is infrared. The video camera sensors can see this light, and it shows up on the video. Your naked eyes can't see infrared, which is why you don't see it. This happens every time you use FaceID to unlock your phone.

Actually no, the video camera has a ir cut off filter in it to prevent ir light from reaching the sensor. “Night vision” and “heat vision” cameras are simply cameras without the ir cutoff filter.
If the video camera didn’t have an ir cutoff filter then things would look very different.

 

[fs454]

Actually no, the video camera has a ir cut off filter in it to prevent ir light from reaching the sensor. “Night vision” and “heat vision” cameras are simply cameras without the ir cutoff filter.
If the video camera didn’t have an ir cutoff filter then things would look very different.

It's an IR cut filter, but not a 100% elimination of IR. Most cameras will still pick up visible IR like OP is describing.

 

[fred98tj]

It wouldn’t convert it to blue. Hehe.

 

[Vermifuge]

It's an IR cut filter, but not a 100% elimination of IR. Most cameras will still pick up visible IR like OP is describing.

Seriously... why do people on the internet think they are lawyers? He's only over complicating the issue for a simple question.
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It wouldn’t convert it to blue. Hehe.

So What else would it be that 1. isn't visible light (to a human) 2. Safe for exposure to human eyes?

 

[Fireball Dragon]

So the IR is blue in this case? Don’t judge, but I thought it looked pretty cool and was just wondering why my phone didn’t do that. Makes sense if I cannot perceive the wavelength, but I didn’t know it was IR for that aspect.

 

[fred98tj]

Blue is the other end of the color spectrum from red. It’s probably just some blue glow from a led or laser. Again IR is completely invisible to us.

 

[orev]

So the IR is blue in this case? Don’t judge, but I thought it looked pretty cool and was just wondering why my phone didn’t do that. Makes sense if I cannot perceive the wavelength, but I didn’t know it was IR for that aspect.

Where are you seeing that it's blue? Example? The video sensor would have to convert the sensor data to something in the visible spectrum, and it's possibly undefined what color that would be. A lot of them look like just white instead of any color.

 

[Fireball Dragon]

Where are you seeing that it's blue? Example? The video sensor would have to convert the sensor data to something in the visible spectrum, and it's possibly undefined what color that would be. A lot of them look like just white instead of any color.

I should add that I have a colour deficiency so may perceive certain hades differently. It definitely looked blue-ish to me. Basically when the IR blaster recognised faces in videos. I'll try and find a video and post it to show you what I mean.

 

[orev]

I should add that I have a colour deficiency so may perceive certain hades differently. It definitely looked blue-ish to me. Basically when the IR blaster recognised faces in videos. I'll try and find a video and post it to show you what I mean.

You can see a similar effect if you point a TV remote control at a video camera. The light on those can appear to be purplish, but that's just how the video sensor interprets the light. If you could see it directly, it would look red somehow.