Eye Safety with TrackIR 5

[sleepingshark]

Hello,

I was wondering whether TrackIR 5 is certified safe for the eyes, as in whether it has been tested and approved according to any standards like EN 62471 for the European Union. I ask this because I see that there appear to be four near IR LEDs in the TrackIR camera, and I'm currently using this with the visor (the three reflecting mirrors on a baseball cap) and I was wondering whether there is any limit to for how long it is safe to use these. I have read recently that NIR light has been linked to cataracts, which is the basis of my concerns - especially since I use TrackIR quite a bit.

Thank you for any information you can provide,

Regards.

[jillian.smythe]

Hi sleepingshark,

I will share your question with our engineering team so they can confirm if this has approvals, such as EN 62471. In the meantime, I found this older post that discusses the LEDs and eye health in more detail: viewtopic.php?p=19826#p19826.

Kind Regards,

[jillian.smythe]

Hi sleepingshark,

I wanted to provide an update with the information the engineering team shared with me.

NIR (Near IR) Light is a fairly broad spectrum of light (760 nm - 1500 nm). Values around the 750 nm range are basically visible red light, values closer to 850 nm can be seen from your eyes if you stare into the LEDs but can't be seen outside of the LED, values around 950 - 1500 nm are used in applications like night vision goggles and can not be visibly seen at all. When someone refers to NIR light they could be referring to anything in that range, so you may want to review what you read to see if there are more specifics about the range to which they were referring.

Our LEDs operate at 850 nm, which should be safe for human eyes. This is the same wavelength used by thousands of other devices, including security cameras, TV remotes, phones, etc.

They confirmed that we have both CE and FCC certification for the TrackIR. To get these certifications, we had to do EMC tests to confirm that the radiated emissions from the device are safe for human use and won't interfere with other nearby devices.

If you are still concerned about the safety of the LEDs in the TrackIR camera, an alternative would be to use the TrackClip Pro. The TrackClip works by reflecting IR light that is put out by the camera, but the TrackClip Pro has LEDs that sit on the clip instead (the LEDs on the camera are turned off when using the TrackClip Pro). This would avoid any concern about looking into the LEDs directly, since they would be pointed toward the camera and not toward your eyes.

Kind Regards,