mhs | magdiel hiram sarmiento

I was at IKEA (Yay!) with my dad a few days ago, eating some very tasty Swedish meatballs, when the most peculiar thought occurred to me. Sitting in the table next to us, also enjoying delicious Swedish food, was a family of three consisting of a mother, a father and a pre-teenage boy. (He looked about 11 or 12 years old.) I thought to myself, “Self, that boy would be a good candidate for those Disney-type shows. I could see him acting on TV.” That wasn’t my exact thought, but it was along those lines. :-) No more than five minutes after I thought it, though, a lady in a pink jacket and jeans walked up to them. She complemented the mother and father on how handsome their boy was, and said that she did casting for Disney (she mentioned That’s So Raven and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody). She offered them her business card, but the mother politely refused. The boy didn’t seem to care about what was going on, he just kept on eating. Maybe I should think more positive thoughts, and they’ll come true!

I found out something cool today about digital cameras and infrared (IR) light. Most remote controls nowadays use IR light to communicate with its corresponding receiver (TV, stereo, etc.), and digital cameras are sensitive to that light. Human eyes can’t see IR light, because it’s outside of the visible spectrum (around 400 to 700 nm) starting at about 750 nm to 1 mm (1000 nm). I think I read that the CCD chips in some digital cameras can detect light in the 1000 nm wavelength range (that’s pretty high!)

So, what does all of this mean? It means that you can test to see if your remote control is working by pointing it at your digital camera! Just turn your camera on, point the remote in question at the lens, and press a button. If you see the little diode on your remote light up through your camera’s screen, then your remote is working. I tried this with the camera on my cell phone, and it works too. Pretty cool, eh?