I'm bored so I figured I'd try to spark a discussion.

I am curious what experiences you guys had, if any, with the sony night vision seeing "through clothes" controversy several years ago?

I read stuff about camcorders and such... it just hit me a little while ago that it was probably a big issue for security cameras too.

biggest load of BS I've ever heard of

I'm not sure about that. There seemed to be lots of video clips to somewhat back it up. Yes the "nude" thing was overstated because the person had to have a particular type (and color if I remember correctly) of clothing on and the person didn't look nude... you could just see their "shape" better.
I think it was along the same lines of what computer geeks do to "strip" chicks in pictures... if they are wearing light colored, clingly clothing, they adjust the contrasts and such until you can "see through" the clothes.

This convo flopped anyway. I'll have to think of some other controversy.

Yes it is true. It started with Sony camcorders. They had a nighvision circuit. If you opened the camcorder and enabled the night vision during the day it would allow you to see through thin clothing.

It is just a wavelength that allows viewing through materials with an IR pass filter.

http://www.kaya-optics.com/products/experiments.shtml

http://www.kaya-optics.com/products/overview.shtml

I hadn't heard about that deal in several years... thanks for the reminder.

I think the current see-thru clothing controversy is the airport scanners, which aren't really a camera at all. They're a sort of microwave radar in the millimeter-wavelength band.

I don't believe anyone has even come close to developing a handheld model