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is it true that sony actually distributed and sold camcorders that could see through clothes?

is it true that in 1998 sony sold 700,000 camcorders that had x-ray abilities to see through clothes in night vision mode? why didnt they know? or did they lol?
thanks

Public Comments

1. Wow! am sending my email ad just in case there's one

2. see through clothes is a real stretch. all CCD imagers have visual acuity in the infra-red band where normal human vision does not. to prevent odd looking pictures, most cameras add a filter to block out IR. Night vision cameras do not have the filter, and employ IR emitting LEDs (like on your TV remote control) to provide illumination. So unless your clothes is somehow transparent to IR, (not too likely) then it does not see through them but reflects off like normal light does. This is further confused with IR type cameras which can detect the heat given off by an object. Since the body gives off heat, which passes through clothes, then you could call this a kind of x-ray effect. what you see is a warm glow, like off a candle, not the outline of a persons naked body!

Generally this feature is for intrusion alarms and nature photographers trying to capture nocturnal animals in total darkness that this IR night vision is of any use, so Sony put the missing filter back in the camera. You can still get night vision cameras, but don't expect to see through any clothes.

3. Many years ago the first night vision camcorders came out. The sensors where different in that time and this was before digital. It did pick up the light that came through the cloths and not the cloths themselves. If used in daylight. But it did happen.