Public Lab near infrared imaging project

The Public Lab near infrared imaging project is an open source community effort to modify consumer cameras to capture near infrared imagery for a range of purposes. All open or accessible near infrared imaging hardware and software efforts are welcome here! 

**Join in by:**

* Reading about goals and asking great questions
* Converting a camera using one of our starter kits
* Trying (and critiquing) our community-made how-to guides
* Posting your own how-to guides and mods
* Building on others’ work; hack and remix the kits to refine and expand them
* (proposed?) Submit your improvements for inclusion in an upcoming starter kit release or add-on
* (proposed?) Serve on a Research Review Group for a 3 month period

## Experiments

This is a list of community-generated guides for experiments using your near-infrared imaging setup (either a camera you converted yourself with a filter pack, a ready-made near-infrared camera, or double camera setup) toward specific applications. Some may be more reproduced -- or reproducible -- than others. Try them out to build your skills, and help improve them by leaving comments. 

Purpose | Author | Time | Difficulty | Status | Goal
----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
[Observing leaf pigments 1](/notes/cfastie/10-11-2013/oaktober) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Observing leaf pigments 2](/notes/cfastie/07-10-2013/aspen-leaf-miner) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Observing leaf pigments 3](/notes/cfastie/07-10-2013/spruce-tips) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Observing root pigments](/notes/cfastie/12-08-2013/root-crops) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Observing fruit pigments (lycopene)](/notes/cfastie/10-10-2013/lycopene) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Observing insect pigments (hornworms)](/notes/cfastie/08-18-2013/hornworms) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Observing crop health 1](/notes/cfastie/04-25-2016/pole-ndvi-of-deer-grazing) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Observing crop health 2](/notes/cfastie/05-23-2016/graze-anatomy) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Observing atmospheric refraction](/notes/cfastie/06-03-2014/halo-red-vs-blue) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Observing atmospheric scattering](/notes/cfastie/06-26-2013/infrablue-haze) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Observing NIR absorption by water](/notes/cfastie/10-06-2014/nir-and-water) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Comparing NIR absorption by beverages 1](/notes/cfastie/12-21-2014/holiday-beverage-whodunit) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Comparing NIR absorption by beverages 2](/notes/cfastie/12-24-2014/potent-potable-puzzle) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications
[Comparing filters](/notes/cfastie/01-16-2015/orange-is-the-new-red) | @cfastie  | X m | X | X replications [Try It]() | X replications


## Context

Infrared photography can help you assess a plant's health. Infrared imagery for agricultural and ecological assessment is usually captured from satellites and planes, and the information is used mainly by large farms, vineyards, and academic research projects. For example, see this illustrated [PDF](http://www.beckshybrids.com/research/2010/pg174-182.pdf) from a commercial imagery provider who has been studying the usefulness of infrared imagery and has quotes from farmers who make use of it. There are public sources of infrared photography for the US available through the Department of Agriculture -- [NAIP](http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/) and [Vegscape](http://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/VegScape/) -- but this imagery is not collected when, as often, or at useable scale for individuals who are managing small plots.