Taking Tri-Camera True-Color Infrared Videos

Hackaday reports on a maker project that captures infrared video in full color using off-the-shelf parts. Three USB cameras had their infrared-blocking filters removed and replaced with specialized band-pass filters, each tuned to a different thermal wavelength: seven-fifty, eight-fifty, and nine-forty nanometers. A Raspberry Pi combines the three monochromatic thermal streams into a composite color video. The builder navigated typical alignment challenges and compensated for camera-oscillator drift—roughly one or two frames per minute—but parallax error remained surprisingly manageable, degrading to less than one pixel of distortion at distances of thirty-five meters or greater. The results are striking: intricate thermal-world imagery rendered in vivid color, all without relying on visible light.

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