Fun little hack I wanted to show off for a while…
In the video you see me taking pictures on a Sony NEX7 using only my iPhone and MetaWatch.
The same works just as well for the internal iPhone camera and basically any DSLR that comes with a built-in IR receiver, although currently only Sony models are supported.
So how does it work ?
Well, it’s quite simple really. As shown in the video, there’s a bluetooth headset with an attached IR-led sitting ontop of the camera, pointing towards the internal IR receiver.
In order to trigger a shutter release the iPhone plays a sound-file (holding the encoded IR command sequence) on the headset which then converts the signal to IR using a simple led connected to the audio output.
Using a bluetooth headset instead of plugging the led into the iPhone directly has some advantages:
- It’s wireless, so the sender (iPhone) can be anywhere.
- Can be used to amplify the signal, which in many cases would be too weak otherwise.
- It’s a cheap, off the shelf component (just like the LED and audio jack)
