Using the camera and flash as an Infrared Port?

Amutek · #1 (**permalink**) 05-27-2009, 10:18 PM

OK... It's a subject that's been beaten to death

... we know there is not an IR port on the Touch Pro... but... how about an alternative? Is there any way to use the built in camera and flash as IR devices... perhaps by redirecting or creating a device driver/descriptor or a registry hack to configure the camera and flash as an IR port? There are a few applications such as Universal Remotes that rely on IR for functionality. I see no reason why the Flash LED can't be used as a visible IR transmitter... and a rather powerful one at that. I realizie that using the camera to recieve IR would be a lot more tricky, however I have taught technicians in the field to use their phone's camera to be able to "see" if an IR transmitter was working properly. If you take your TV remote and point it at your phone's camera and press a button on the remote, you can see the IR LED on the remote blink, indicating that it's working. The trick is to get the camera to interpret image data as IR... possibly a fixed cell in the center of the camera's viewing window, or a digital ultrazoom so that whatever is in the center of the window is all that is seen and then interpreted as IR data. I would love to hear some feedback on this topic. Anyone up for the challange? (I LOVE this stuff!)

j_j · #2 (**permalink**) 05-27-2009, 10:32 PM

That would be cool, if the led wavelength could be manipulated by voltage it's feasible i just wonder if it could be lowered that low before it dropped below the forward voltage, the developers on here pretty much know stuff like that inside out though so if it were possible they would have done it i would think, but it would be awesome!

#3 (**permalink**) 05-27-2009, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amutek

OK... It's a subject that's been beaten to death

... we know there is not an IR port on the Touch Pro... but... how about an alternative? Is there any way to use the built in camera and flash as IR devices... perhaps by redirecting or creating a device driver/descriptor or a registry hack to configure the camera and flash as an IR port? There are a few applications such as Universal Remotes that rely on IR for functionality. I see no reason why the Flash LED can't be used as a visible IR transmitter... and a rather powerful one at that. I realizie that using the camera to recieve IR would be a lot more tricky, however I have taught technicians in the field to use their phone's camera to be able to "see" if an IR transmitter was working properly. If you take your TV remote and point it at your phone's camera and press a button on the remote, you can see the IR LED on the remote blink, indicating that it's working. The trick is to get the camera to interpret image data as IR... possibly a fixed cell in the center of the camera's viewing window, or a digital ultrazoom so that whatever is in the center of the window is all that is seen and then interpreted as IR data. I would love to hear some feedback on this topic. Anyone up for the challange? (I LOVE this stuff!)

The stock LED doesn't emit enough IR light to be useful as an IR transmitter. You would have to replace the LED with an IR LED... even then, I don't think we have enough control over the hardware to create a receivable signal... hardware modification like that would be something for no2chem to undertake though.

Just the other day I realized how nice it would be to have an IR port on my TP - I was sitting in Buffalo Wild Wings and wanted to change what was on the TV (the same hockey game across 8 TV's all right next to each other was a little excessive).

**shaggylive** · #4 (**permalink**) 05-27-2009, 11:00 PM

best bet is to hope for usb host that can work a generic usb irda.
otherwise it's an expensive and elaborate combo to get microSD-SDIO-(rs232)-IRDA.

the only bluetooth-irda converters I've seen go the wrong way for ps3's

zepsamsung · #5 (**permalink**) 05-28-2009, 11:55 AM

Use your bluetooth to send. That is why INFRARED is not on new phones.
How many people use it? Had it on my Mogul and most of my Sony phones and never used it.

elmerfudpucker · #6 (**permalink**) 05-28-2009, 12:08 PM

I used the IR twice on my mogul, both times to a friends' palm to shoot him a map + a file. It would have been way faster if he had bluetooth...

**Darkjedi** · #7 (**permalink**) 05-28-2009, 12:11 PM

I know for sure that the camera on the TP picks up infrared radiation. As you stated you can see a TV's remotes LED blink. I first found that out when I was playing with my cameras remote control which seems to have a brighter infrared LED than a TV's.

Weirdly enough infrared actually comes through on the camera as blue, the opposite side of the spectrum and not red.

gbm85 · #8 (**permalink**) 05-30-2009, 03:07 PM

Yep the camera flash won't be picked up by any IR receivers.

The camera will "pick up" IR light but won't be able to interpret it... there is just no way the camera will be able to decode the signal.

**Darkjedi** · #9 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gbm85

Yep the camera flash won't be picked up by any IR receivers.

The camera will "pick up" IR light but won't be able to interpret it... there is just no way the camera will be able to decode the signal.

A program utilizing the camera could. It doesn't have to be hardware level decoding, but software level instead.

megagprime · #10 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 12:57 AM

this is juicy