Abstract: Techniques are required that compensate for the presence of unwanted background in IR images. This is achieved by operating the imaging system such that it captures alternating frames of visible and IR. The IR frames will contain visible background, which needs to be removed by way of subtraction or active selection of only the IR band. In one solution, the background may be estimated based on the visible image and subtracted to give a reconstructed IR frame. In another solution, an optical shutter is positioned in front of the sensor. This optical shutter is shut when the IR illumination is active to block the visible band, thereby producing images on par with those using IR bandpass filters. Then the optical shutter is open during ambient exposures, thereby generating images that can be used by tracking modalities that require visible frames such as head-tracking using SLAM.