Research question for TV show: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

**Steve Machol** · 07-24-2002, 09:24 PM

I received this request for assistance and was asked to post this on the Board.

Hello:

My name is David Berman. I am the researcher for a television program called C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation. It airs on Thursday evenings at 9:00 on CBS. I was hoping to get your assistance with a few questions posed to me by our writing staff. I am sure that you are very busy, but I would greatly appreciated any advice or information you could provide on a series of questions involving contact lenses. I can be reached at <removed>.

Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely

David Berman
Researcher
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Situation:

A woman uses contact lenses to cheat at poker. Basically, she rubs a bit of vaseline or carmex on certain cards and with the aid the of special contact lenses (infra red?) she is able to visually pick up the substance on the marked cards.

Questions:

1. What would such a lens be called? Is it infrared? Does it have another name?

2. What does that lens look like. Is it tinted or clear?

3. The CSI team wants to reproduce the woman's technique back at the lab by creating an over sized Infrared lens.

a. What material is the lens made of?
b. Basically, how are the lens constructed and what are the mechanics of how it would work?
c. Any other particulars about the lens?

If you have the answers please post them here. You can also email David directly at the email address he provided.

**Pete Hanlin** · 07-26-2002, 12:44 PM

The only thing I can think of that is even remotely close to what he may be referring to is a ruby red contact lens (used, as I understand it, to assist color blind individuals). I don't believe such a lens would detect infrared signals or anything like that, however...

Also, I don't see how vaseline is going to be detectable by an infrared device (since the vaseline will theoretically be the same temperature as the card it is on. Really, if one were going to cheat at cards, it seems to me they would use a polarization device and mark the cards in a way that is only viewable through a polarizing filter (kind of like the technique KBco uses to demonstrate their lenses).

**shanbaum** · 07-26-2002, 01:03 PM

Back in the days when CLC's were polymethylmethacrylate, you could buy a very dark red lens which was said to be an IR filter.

I had a pair of these but I really don't recall whether I ever tried to mark cards with them, or otherwise experiment with their IR transmission properties. I do recall that they made the world look pretty monochromatic.

I don't know if Vaseline would be particularly IR-absorptive or reflective, but surely there are such substances; I would think that given the right "ink", the scheme could work. But Vaseline? Yuk. New deck, please...

I would think the CSI team would do better to fit an IR filter to some of the ubiquitous cameras found in casino ceilings. Oh, and increase the level of infra-red light in the casino through some high-tech means, making the marks stand out more.

Wouldn't a distributed tachyon particle burst produce that effect, Commander LaForge?

Oops, wrong show.

**Judy Canty** · 07-26-2002, 01:09 PM

Ok, I'll take a shot at this one. But before you guys beat me up, remember that CL's are not my thing.

In the early 70's I was working for an OD in Norfolk who has since passed away. I remember him making a red hard (PMMA) lens for a customer. Since I did the ordering, I commented on the color and he said it was for reading a "marked" deck of cards.

Now it's everyone else's turn!

**Darris Chambless** · 07-26-2002, 01:14 PM

Hello Steve,

Um, well the only problem being that this is more of an impossible situation and to duplicate it in real life would be just as impossible in my opinion. A contact lens that will allow one to pick up infrared or other properties? Perhaps they could do something involving polarescence instead since it would be more plausible. To pick up infrared you would need more than just a contact lens which would make it impossible to hide what you were doing at the poker table.

This is probably why there have been so many views and no responses. I can't think of a single "simple" way to do this and have it be believeable. There may be some very elaborate ways of doing this but there would be so many variables it wouldn't even be funny.

I'm gonna e-mail Mr. Berman and find out exactly what he's looking for. I'll let you know what I find out.

Darris C.

**Shwing** · 07-26-2002, 02:30 PM

What it comes down to is simple neutralization. To see something that you would not see in the normal visible spectrum, you would have to either go outside/ alter that spectrum (X-Ray) or counter a given wavelength thereby rendering it non-existent.

This is exactly how the military jams enemy radar and radio communications: it rebroadcasts/ emits a frequency that matches and thereby either masks or neutralizes the original. A lot of the technology in a Stealth plane is also based on this concept.

So, let's say that you do this, and manage to neutralize only the wavelength emitted by a plasticized set of cardboard (while held at a certain angle).

Still wouldn't work, as now you've made the whole card 'invisible' to your lens, not just the symbols on it (though rendering the symbols invisible would be fine, as it would create a negative image). Even if you could do just that, it still wouldn't work (IMHO) as the ink on the back of the card would act as a barrier, creating a blur (the basics of card design: think of bright lights in certain positions, etc).

On top of all that, I cannot fathom how (with today's technology) you would create a non-toxic material to human tissue.

Stick with some kind of spectacle device... (though the X-chrome lens was my first thought as well).

The only other plausible scenario would be to mark the cards with some dye, and then use a special lens (like an X-chrome or some other technology based on Ishihara's chromaticism) to detect this. But what casino is going to let you bring your own cards in anyway?? And if so, there are hundreds of better and less expensive ways to mark cards...

So, my suggestion would be to catch the casino cheating as they use their cameras, but that takes all the fun out of it.

If I may, I'd suggest an optically related story line like this:

Pieces of a body are found, but there is no way to identify it (too badly burned, too many parts missing, whatever) but a portion of a pair of spectacles are found with it. Grissom and the team must ID the body by the specs. The only usable part of the specs would consist of a small amount of lens. They'd determine the material, rx, and other unique characteristics, and start hunting them down through local dispensaries.

Some dispensaries would have great records, some don't; some optical folk know what they're talking about, knows about index of refraction, sag, etc and some don't (illustrating the importance of licensing?). Anyway, the piece of lens would be of a high enough rx, and unique enough add-ons to narrow down the field to a few individuals, and voile!

Those are my thoughts, not yours...

**Pete Hanlin** · 07-26-2002, 03:15 PM

Actually, I wonder if- instead of IR- the show's producers are thinking along the lines of the red lenses used to read game pieces.

You know, you pull the game piece out of a cereal box or a magazine or something, and to read whether you've won or not you view the jumbly grouping of colored dots through a red lens (which of course always says "Not a winner- please try again" in my case).

Using a red filter in this way, it would be pretty easy to mark the back of a deck of cards if the cards had a red based reverse side. Furthermore, it would be easy to do this with a ruby red contact lens. This wouldn't necessarily involve the use of IR, however.

Another interesting way to "mark" a deck would be to put a "magic" image on the reverse (you know, the pictures at the mall that you stare at until a 3D image appears out of the jumbled background).

**Steve Machol** · 07-26-2002, 03:30 PM

I just received this email from Mr. Berman:

Hello Mr. Machol,

Thank you so much for posting my request. I gave received some very nice e-mails and I am very appreciative of everyone's help. I think that we have all the information we need right now. I'd hate to waste anyone else's time. Would you be so kind as to post this e-mail informing everyone that we are all set.

Thank you so much

David Berman
Researcher
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

**Judy Canty** · 07-26-2002, 03:52 PM

I think that's the situation that Dr. L was trying to deal with. I'm pretty sure it was a deck of cards with a red patterned back. Of course, it would have to be an "inside" job to be able to mark the decks...

**JRS** · 07-26-2002, 04:15 PM

Actually Judy - the red CL is true. I made myself up a pair of hard CL's many years ago. Had a deck of Bicycle cards w/ the red back - obviously they were a marked set, since this is why I made the lenses. And sure enough I could tell what each was.

**Joann Raytar** · 07-26-2002, 09:46 PM

That's pretty much what I was thinking. Marking the cards in a manner similar to the cards used to test for colorblindness during an exam. I thought it would be possible to use a red lens to read a marked deck of cards in that manner.

**Darryl Meister** · 08-02-2002, 06:36 PM

I suspect that the principle has little to do with infrared light and more to do with certain colors obscuring others. Also, I doubt that a passive filter, such as a contact lens, could make infrared radiation visible. (Even if Vaseline managed to reflect a noticeably different amount of thermal radiation than the card, itself.) However, if you were to mark a deck with a certain color and then obscure that mark with a complicated design in red ink, you could then use a red filter (or red lens) to "mask" the red design, revealing the mark underneath. This is no different than those little "secret decoder" toys you once found in cereal boxes and Happy Meals.

Best regards,
Darryl

**MVEYES** · 08-03-2002, 09:04 AM

I checked with my contact lens manufacturing friends and was told there was no way to put a laminate infrared filter in a gas permeable lens. Infrared picks up heat and the source would have to be producing that energy.

:cheers: Jerry

**chip anderson** · 08-03-2002, 03:48 PM

Back in my first years in the contact lens business, we had a number of customers who frequented the Balaneze Room in Galveston where it was rumored that they played cards for money. These customers would come in with marked cards (or sometimes I think my employers supplied same) the most common being bycycle diamond backs. We would then take color samples of plexiglas (which always was an is the best material for contact lenses) and observe the cards (regular room flouresent light). When found the right sample to see the marks (usually only face cards and the ACE's were marked) we would make contact lenses for the patient. Most of the cards and lenses were blue or red, but I am sure other colors could be used as well, depending on the dyes used on the cards. Vasiline would be picked up by the otyher card players immeadiately, resulting in disembowlment.

For the most decerning customers we would make one eye with a non-tinted lens and the other lens with a smaller-than-the pupil tinted center in the appropriate fit and Rx of course. In the event of his fellow card players becoming suspicious, the player removed the non-tinted lens and displayed it for those who doubted his integrity.

Later I saw similar cards advertized in some magazines but with spectacles only.

Anything else you want to know about contact lenses, just ask ole Chip.

**Ray Parent** · 08-05-2002, 12:01 AM

The contact lense idea was also used in a 1989 Hong Kong film titled 'God Of Gamblers."

**Jim Schafer** · 09-27-2002, 07:08 AM

Hey Everyone,
CSI broadcast the episode involving the woman using a contact lens to cheat in a high stakes poker game last night.
Being the channel surfing fool I am, I caught the tail end of how the one tinted contact lens (a higher contrast brown over her natural brown eyes?? I probably have that wrong, only catching part of the scene) helped her pick up marked cards.
I cannot believe the dumb luck in missing explanation that the script used....
Also, who could have believed putting eye drops in a drink could cause such problems!

The other programs I was interested in... the Indians-Twins game, checking on all the rookie "papoose's) the Tribe called up, at least that paid off...Tribe won 8-4 ...and ESPN's Florida State-Lousiville football game played in a monsoon. Great game!
best regards,
Jim

**chip anderson** · 09-27-2002, 07:39 AM

Jim:

On this program, she marked the cards by touching them to her lips. She had some chemical (didn't pay attention to what) added to her lipstick.

Chip