Star Trek

I watched Star Trek XI last Thursday night at Mid Valley Megamall's Golden Screen Cinemas and I noticed there is a big infrared (IR) camera being deployed next to the screen facing the audience. The main purpose to have a camera pointing at the audience my guess is to prevent the pirated DVD syndicate from using camcorder, handphone or any recording devices to record the movie.

To me with the given height and the area the camera has to cover, it is better to deploy a low lux box camera instead of an IR camera.

IR camera is a good fit for areas with virtually no light that only need coverage in a limited or confined area. The analogy of an IR camera is like walking around into the pitch dark with a torchlight. While IR cameras capture the image by supplying their own IR light source Low Lux cameras take the opposite approach as they take advantage of any ambient light available, in this case the light reflected from the cinema screen.

Like a torchlight, IR coverage is limited and narrow hence IR cameras often hit the limit of their IR lighting long before the optical limits of the lens. I suspect the IR camera at the cinema can only capture images around the central of the audience seats.




Back to the movie, I'm no Trekkie but like it all the same. The only setback was a lady setting next to me coughing nonstop throughout the show. Sigh... hope it's not H1N1... 5 more days to go before I can find out. Perhaps all cinemas should deploy thermal cameras instead of IR cameras.