I worked in computer vision QA at a small startup named Neven Vision. (Google Goggles, Picassa fame) It's interesting to see how much things have progressed. I think I may have developed some of the first field tests in mobile computer vison. IR was very sensitive to lighting at the time. Though extreme angles always seemed to work. By the way I was testing on the best camera phone in town, the t-mobile sidekick.