OnePlus recently launched OnePlus 8 pro and it had a unique camera setup, consisting of a Color Filter camera. Every one speculated that this camera would be of no use in real world and is just increasing the cost of the phone. However, recently it was accidentally discovered that it can see through certain materials like an X-ray.
Upon digging further it was discovered that the camera uses infrared sensors to see through a small subset of black materials. So if you have a OnePlus 8 Pro then open the camera app, swipe over to the “Photochrom” color filter, and point it some black objects.
Well we tried this multiple times but it doesn't see through objects every time, it is just hit or miss. When the lighting conditions are right and you point the camera at a thin plastic such as TV remote then only you can see through the objects. Additionally you can see through the black clothes of the person.
Back in 1998, similar incident happened with Sony when it was found that their popular Handycam camcorders Night Vision mode could be easily modified to reveal a considerable amount of detail under people’s clothing through the addition of a simple external filter. After that issue, Sony had to recall their all of the cameras.
The feature we refereed above uses Infrared light that sits right below visible light in the electromagnetic spectrum. Human eyes cannot see this light but can fell the heat energy from them. About half of the energy that arrives on the Earth from the Sun arrives as infrared. Since we cannot see the infrared light, it has various purposes such as in Apple Face Id that uses flashes of infrared light to capture the face data.
OnePlus has admitted that this feature is casing privacy concerns in people, hence this camera would be disabled in future update until they find the work around of the feature.
