Can anyone tell me if there is a cheap way to create a colored display in infrared? Can I purchase just the sensors and a board to convert the signal from computer to a display. I work in a science center as an exhibit tech, we are nonprofit so cash is always an issue. Even used color infrared cameras are a bit to much for the budget for the exhibit. Im new to robotics but find it very interesting and current to what my center should be promoting. Id like to be able to show kids how color is percieved by humans and by machine. My education in robotics is at best very limited Im a sculpter and a computer tech.Thank you in advance for any help.
Thanks for the advice on types robotic vision, I appreciate your time spent on my behalf.
Could you also tell me if there is a cheap way to make an infrared display? I know that to make a robot see colors you use differant coloured LED and sensors so that it can pick out differant types or colered objects. But is there a cheap way out there to make an inexspensive infrared camera to show an image on a computer screen. The center were I work realy cant budget a four thousand dollar camera for this display. I just blew over a grand on air valves for the animatronic grizzly bear we have. They never set up the air system with a dessicant filter so they were all plugged with water and oil. Hopefully the air cylynders blow them selves out when I get the valves to work. Again thank you for your Help! Great site I have to do some more reading here.
Dan
Dano,
Infrared light is in the non visible spectrum for humans.
How a robot would detect color is actually simple to demonstrate using different types of light sensors and not only IR. A simple LED and CDS photocell could work. There are however products marketed as “color sensors” but this is not absolutely required to demonstrate the basic principles of how colors are “seen”.
Since the reflectivity of colors varies, by quantifying the reflectivity of a color palette you can easily differentiate between the colors once trained. Similarly to how a human is trained to say that a color is “red”. If nobody ever tells you then you will not know. We will not venture into color blindness as robots should not encounter this unless a malfunction occurs either in the training or in the sensor itself 
I agree, perhaps you can see if RoboRealm (a free software for machine vision) can do what you are looking for; it works with a simple webcam.
There are animals that can only see in white-gray-black (monochrome) color. If you want demonstrate the difference between a human eye and a sensor, you should explain the technical and biological differences between them. There are physical and optical differences.
Go take a look :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_eye
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_vision
In a medium future, we will combine biological and electrical to create artificial eyes.
Maybe you can show a little demonstration without a camera. Take a good resolution picture and works with it in three modes :
Plain mode : the picture with no changes (this is human vision)
Monochrome mode : the picture as to be in white, gray and black (some animal vision)
Sensor mode : the picture as to be not clear enough to be recognize by a human eye.
You can also talk about visual recognition…
Jeff
You will probably achieve what you want with a software. Not a camera. I don’t think it will be cheaper than 50 $ - 100 $.
Good luck,
Jeff