Few independent things, lest say, few projects.

One, that I haven't considered seriously until recently, is short-range Night Vision. Google for original idea - when it comes to our device, the point is that our sensor is perfectly capable of catching full InfraRed range, yet it is limited by hardware. Until recently, I though it is hardcoded in sensor controller (i.e kinda software'ish limit, but impossible to bypass without hardware change = just lik
e hardware limit). Ho ever, strange and other suggested, that IR is filtered rather by small plastic part - hardware filter.

Just as proof of concept, some time ago I prepared set of IR diodes, that may be powered from both USB (via hostmode) and battery itself (using dr-frost-dk's modded battery with external plug). The power of InfraRed light is enough to light up 15-30 meters in full darkness (shorter when using USB hostmode, longer, due to higher power, when using N900 battery itself) - of course IR light is invisible for human eyes, but is perfectly visible for our sensor, if we're able to remove IR filtering plate.

Now, why the plate is there at all? When not filtering IR, light spectrum on photo is different, and algorithms used by autofocus are not working (in our case - as don-falcone pointed out, there are workarounds for good'old standalone cameras). Generally, some photographers remove IR filtering to get some very interesting looking photos even in daytime - after all, we also have manual focus - but, my main goal is to enable Night Vision mode, where we can see things in the dark, without actually lighting surrounding up by light visible to human eye. Particularly, You look at screen, and You see things, that are not visible without screen. I don't know how to write it more clear - You just need to have basic idea what NightVision device is.

This can be (probably) achieved quite easy right now, with one drawback - we would lose ability to take normal daylight photos (due to broken autofocus and bizarre colors). This doesn't match my 'aesthetic' so I'm designing hardware mod to physically swap IR-filtering plate, and 'dummy' regular glass/plastic plate (without filtering capabilities). Of course, I first need to check if the outer plate (that is accessible) is really *this* plate that perform filtering.

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Now, second thing, that tecs mentioned in his post, is exposure time (not related to IR and NightVision). Max shutter open time - achievable by fCam libraries - is 1 second. It's very long for regular photos, but using tripod, and taking night shots (normal, not infrared), it is many times - if not most - desirable to have longer shutter open time. This way, You can make very good quality photos of static objects, even in *very* low light enviroments, or, interesting photos of moving objects (like parallax of stars).

/Estel