Debunking Night Vision Cameras
Published by Misty Evans in Methods · 25 May 2022
I’m sure most of you watch the shows on tv. I myself enjoy a few of them but I’m sure you’ve seen the videos where the camera is triggered stating “a person has been detected”. First thing through your mind of course is “someone is trying to break in” but you look and NO ONE IS THERE. But you start to see something dancing in the air and just can’t explain it so it must be a ghost! Well, this is where investigating comes in handy and the knowledge of the equipment that we (in the paranormal field) use.
First let’s look at what a night vision camera does. In short, when the camera is recording in the dark it luminates the area using IR lights. Infrared Radiation (IR) lights that allows the surrounding area using the infrared spectrum. You couple that with motion sensors it allows the camera to pick up movement and will trigger the camera to turn on. Your normal security camera is programmed to see a person as a tall shape with two legs compared to an animal with four legs and usually smaller or low to the ground. This
sometimes can lead to false positives.
Below is a video of my personal home camera. You can see the time stamp that is 4:11am and camera triggered stating there was a person in the back yard. After closely watching the video, I couldn’t see anyone (which was a relief), but I did notice a spider web that was right in front of the camera. The camera seeing this triggered thinking someone was standing on our deck.
Also, let’s look at the spider web, which does look orb like and floating. We are sent a lot of videos like this, with the person thinking it was paranormal when in actuality its completely explainable. Which I can understand, when you’re on edge and maybe experiencing things in your home can look like a spirit light.
Another reason why a camera can trigger is a bad connection bet it and the main box/circuit. When the connection is weak or lost (dropped Wi-Fi) it can trigger a false notification and the camera will turn on. So just double check your settings as well.
Another example of a false positive can be seen with a SLS camera. For those of you who are not familiar with and SLS (Structured Light Sensor), this uses the Xbox Kinect sensor and program to detect humanoid figures. The theory behind this camera is that when spirits try to manifest the sensor will pick this up and create a stick figure on the screen. My suggestion if you are using or watching footage of the SLS, look at the surroundings and what the camera is focused on. Things that will trigger the sensor are chairs, a person, tall objects like a bookcase or speakers, doorframes.
The SLS video below will show you a few false positives and what they look like. You’ll also see a piece of evidence we captured at a client’s home. During the video we ask the anomaly to move to the left and it did. By asking the anomaly to move and it does provide
a more substantial piece of evidence.
Till next time stay spooky!