Movie theater IR cluster

[JBotAlan]

So...we have been contemplating the use of this infrared board, and I guess my mind has been churning on that a little too long...I figured I'd share this.

I was sitting in the back of the theater, and I noticed a red box that looked like it had an array of LEDs in it. I pointed my cameraphone at it...and sure enough:

(only I would be freakish enough to not only have a camera in the theater, but to be pointing said camera at the back of the theater, not at the screen... )

Any ideas as to the purpose of this? I heard somewhere that camcorders use infrared to auto-focus; could this be a jamming device? If so, why would it not be in the front of the theater? This is right above the projection window in the back.

Ideas?
JBot

[Madison]

That may have been part of the theatre's closed captioning system.

[JBotAlan]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

That may have been part of the theatre's closed captioning system.

Oh...I hadn't thought about that. That's probably it. So a hearing-impaired person would get a receiver box with a display, and it would pick up that signal and display it...interesting...

[Binome]

IR security camera floodlights?
Descriptive video?
Audio for the hearing impared?
a interesting IR array, none the less.

[artdutra04]

I'd guess that's its for the exact same thing that you noticed it with: cameras. During the movie, they can use IR LEDs to illuminate the theater, so security cameras can actually the people in there.

[JBotAlan]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

I'd guess that's its for the exact same thing that you noticed it with: cameras. During the movie, they can use IR LEDs to illuminate the theater, so security cameras can actually the people in there.

I meant to wave my camera around during the movie to see if it was illuminating much of anything...but I've been to my dad's office, where they have done image recognition of wheel hubs...and the IR array they use--the one that's meant to illuminate the hub--is *very* warm--almost like a heater. After all, IR is just another name for heat. I would think this array would actually make us feel warm if it was meant for illumination...and I don't think it's a jamming device anymore, either, because it doesn't seem to be high-powered enough.

I'm going with audio/captioning for the hearing impaired, though I thought they used RF for that...but with that many theaters in one location (they have like 20) I guess you'd want a signal confined to one room.

JBot

[vivek16]

hmm... maybe the field will transmit IR signals to the robot and then to the IO through the robot so that hearing Impaired drivers can know the field messages??

sigh, only 2d 12h until kickoff. seems like foreverz

-vivek

[charlie1218]

I can tell you that it is not for closed captioning. My aunt and uncle are deaf, and the way you get the CC is you put a mirror on the seat in front of you, and a screen behind you projects the image with red LEDs in reverse.

[JamesBrown]

What company owned the theater. I have worked in a movie theater for a couple of years and have never seen any thing like that. I have friends at a few other theaters so if you know who owns the theater chain (National Amusements Probably) then I may be able to find out what it is for.

[JBotAlan]

Originally Posted by JamesBrown

What company owned the theater. I have worked in a movie theater for a couple of years and have never seen any thing like that. I have friends at a few other theaters so if you know who owns the theater chain (National Amusements Probably) then I may be able to find out what it is for.

It's an NCG (Northern Cinema Group?) Trillium theater. I tried to do some research on the company, but their website didn't reveal any parent company, and Wikipedia doesn't even have an article about them...so they must not exist, right?

JBot

[Tach'ko]

I've been kinda wondering about using IR in movie theaters to stop ilegal bootlegging, like putting a large IR LED array behind the screen to make like a watermark or somthing so the movie is ruined if you use a videocamera to record it.. But that wuold probably take too much power to bee effective. Its probably for security cameras, so they can see in the dark.