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Comment by smoody | Hacker News Reader

Speaking of Kinect and health... am I the only one worried about the potential health impact of having bright pinpoints of infrared light beamed directly into our eyes for long periods of time? Just because we can't perceive the light doesn't mean it can't damage our eyes, right? Or am I wrong?

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Years ago, I worked on a project that involve capturing images filmed with an ophthalmoscope and mosaicing them into a complete image of the back of the eye. Part of that involved finding out how bright a light we could get away with beaming into peoples eyeballs. I don't remember specifics, other than being surprised at how much you could get away with.

A quick search showed that there are standards that cover this and include infrared light (see http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulationandGuidanc... for more information).

2 things I would love to know:

Are there other commercially available cameras that already do this out 'in the wild' (ie am I already hit with these daily, I just don't know it)?

What are the health implications of it (if any)?

Security cameras use IR illuminating LEDs. At the lab where I work we have video eye-tracking hardware that uses a 4x6 array of IR LEDs to illuminate the subject's eyes.

I don't think it's a problem unless you get into significant intensities, as per a >1 mW laser.

Maybe 3D glasses will take off as a fashion accessory when these little boxes start popping up all over the place and we experience mass vision impairment

I doubt it's anywhere near as intense as, say, a 30" LCD's backlight, let alone stage lighting, or daylight. It's not a laser pointer, it's just IR.

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