Quote:
Originally Posted by billbo911
We did a little test to see how far off axis you could be and still see the light being reflected back to the source. We wanted to know if the color could be polluted by a robot right next to yours with a different color light. We found that as little as 6 inches off axis was enough to SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the reflection. By 12 inches, it was gone!
Look through the center of the ring, where your lens should be, and you will see the light!
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I was confused by this, because I initially thought that this tape would reflect in a broad bell-curve-shaped distribution centered around the angle of reflection of the light source. This came from a poor understanding of the meaning of retro-reflectivity.
Then I read this writeup about the construction and physics of retro-reflective tape:
http://dr650.zenseeker.net/ReflectiveTape.htm