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Find out more about infrared pursuit games. Q: What are action pursuit games? A. The term "action pursuit games" describes sports that simulate combat by "tagging" opponents in order to take them out of the game. The objectives vary according to which type of game has been agreed on (e.g., "Capture the Flag" or "Last Man Standing"). Players may be tagged with projectiles, as in paintball or airsoft, or with beams of light, as in infrared gaming. Q: How is infrared gaming different from paintball? A. Infrared systems use transmitters that emit infrared beams which are detected by receivers worn by the players. The beams carry coded information that is "read" by the electronic components in the receivers in order to register a "hit." Thus, infrared systems are completely non-contact and require no safety gear.? By contrast, paintball guns (or "markers") use compressed air to fire plastic, dye-filled balls at opponents.? The balls break on contact, splattering the opponent with the dye, indicating a hit.? The balls are fired at great force, and can be quite painful. Safety gear must be worn by paintballers to prevent injury. Q: Do infrared guns really use lasers? A. No. Infrared guns use an LED, or "light emitting diode."? It's the same thing that a TV remote uses to send its infrared signals. An LED sends negatively-charged electrons through its semiconductors in such a way that they give off photons.? LEDs can be designed to give off these photons as low frequency infrared waves. By blinking the LED rapidly between two different frequencies, information can be transmitted, representing the zeroes and ones used in digital binary code.? The receiver detects and analyzes this string of bits to register that it's been hit. Q: Are infrared beams dangerous? A. No. In fact, infrared radiation is all around us all of the time. Infrared waves are sometimes called heat waves, because all matter with moving atoms, even cold objects like ice and snow, gives off harmless infrared radiation. Infrared beams are used in many household items, such as remote controls. |