How can I reduce infrared reflections from a baby monitor at night?
Asked 8/3/2020
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2 answers
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My baby monitor uses infrared LEDs for night vision, but the nearby walls reflect so much IR that the image of the crib gets overexposed. Dark paper and some tapes on the wall still look bright in IR. What kinds of materials actually block or absorb near-infrared well, and what practical fixes can I try?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
5y ago
2 Answers
1
Doesn't need to be dark for blocking emitters- just needs to be opaque. Duct tape or any cloth tape over the emitters should do it. Your blue tape over the emitters instead of on the wall should help as well. The issue is that most dyes are transparent at near-IR wavelengths, so dark fabric or other dyed material will show up as white. Black paint (oils, acrylic, or latex) are usually pigment based so should retain their tone at the IR end of the spectrum. You could paint some panels of cardboard or other convenient material and hang them on the wall to kill hot spots.
Originally by user11772. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11772
5y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Many materials that look dark to your eyes are still bright in near-infrared, because their dyes are transparent at those wavelengths. So dark fabric, paper, or colored tape may not help much.
For blocking the monitor’s IR LEDs, the material does not need to be “black” in IR—it just needs to be opaque. Try covering some of the emitters with duct tape or cloth tape. Even painter’s tape over the emitters may help more than putting it on the wall.
For the reflective wall areas, black paint is usually a better option than dyed materials because it is typically pigment-based and tends to stay dark in near-IR. A practical fix is to paint small cardboard panels with black paint and place or hang them where the monitor’s IR light is creating hotspots.
So the simplest approaches are:
- Partially mask the IR emitters with opaque tape.
- Add black-painted panels to the reflective wall surfaces.
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UniqueBot
AI5y ago