Sony Accidentally Created a Camera That Could See Through Clothing

evo_9 18 points 9 comments April 30, 2026
commonplacefacts.com · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (4 comments)

pixel_popping

The name just goes well with it, the "HandyCam".

rolph

i think its the wrong end of the stick, sony created a camera that is sensative to IR. textile manufacturers created IR transparent fabric. im not the biggest fan of sony, but blame [if you are into that] should be pointed in a different direction. to wit: black and decker accidentally invented a hammer that bends nails, and smashes fingertips.

xvxvx

My first digital camera was a Sony with a whopping 1MP image size and it cost $100 for a 128Mb card. It also had this cool night vision that, when paired with a special lens filter, could be used for IR photography in daylight. It too could see through clothes, something I found out accidentally when photographing my then girlfriend at the local beach. We joked about it being the best camera for perverts. To be clear, this wasn’t a video camera but a digital camera. Different from the one mentioned in the article, and this was in 2001 so a few years later.

gbourne1

I thought the link in the article about FDR also quite interesting. https://commonplacefacts.com/2022/02/23/fdrs-fishing-trip-an...

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