While “Infrared Cannon” might evoke visions of airplanes being melted by some sort of futuristic anti-aircraft artillery, this device comes in peace. Unlike your traditional IR emitter, which scatters light in a very wide array, this small IR/lens apparatus instead uses a lens held in place by an anodized housing to focus the beam. This results in IR light concentrated in a 15 cm diameter circle at a distance of 10 meters.
The device was made for use in an IR-based shooting toy, and would be great if you wanted to have a game of laser tag with all DIY equipment. Or perhaps some sort of shooting gallery setup is more your style.
While it certainly has its recreational uses, a device like this could also be used to individually control IR devices. For example, if you had several TVs side-by-side, you could change the channel on one, while not affecting the other. This would be great for sports enthusiasts that need to watch several game simultaneously, or evil geniuses that have an array of TVs feeding them all the world’s information at one time to keep track of their nefarious plans! It’s an interesting part in search for just the right problem!
