Infrared goggles that show colours
4 hours ago
- Human eyes cannot see infrared because the photons lack sufficient energy to trigger vision cells.
- A new device from Beijing Institute of Technology translates infrared wavelengths into distinct colors, unlike standard night-vision which uses only green.
- The device uses mercury telluride quantum dots to absorb infrared and a dual-layer OLED to convert it into a full-color visible image.
- Infrared vision is limited because photons with wavelengths over 700 nm have less than 1.6 electron volts of energy, missing over half of the Sun's radiant energy.
- Standard infrared devices show only brightness differences, but human eyes are better at distinguishing color hues than brightness levels.