Infrared Night Vision Goggles

When you think of infrared night vision goggles you probably think of the military and/or spies. While this technology may have started out being used exclusively in the military, it now is used by many civilians and even children (night vision toy goggles). Night vision goggles, binoculars and monoculars are being used to help in search/rescue operations (see video below), track bizarre flyng objects in the night time sky, to name just a few uses.

Infrared night vision goggles and other night vision enhancing devices come in all forms and price ranges. And people are finding all sorts of fascinating uses for them.

But do they actually work? The answer is YES! With night-vision equipment, you can see a person from over 200 yards away on a moonless night.

Night vision technology works in two different ways, depending on the technology used:

1) Image Enhancement Technology

Image enhancement technology works by gathering small amounts of light (including infrared light which is used in infrared night vision goggles) that are present but may be visible to the naked eye. It then increases or amplifies it so we can see it. Image intensifiers are most commonly used in night scopes and night vision goggles. Image enhancement, also called Image intensifiers, amplify available light in order to create more night time vision. Because they use available light to create more vision, they are useless in places without any light at all, like caves.

Advantages to using Image Intensifiers include:

  • Excellent low-light level sensitivity
  • High resolution
  • Low power and cost
  • Ability to identify people
  • Disadvantages:
  • Inferior daytime performance
  • Possibility of damage when observing bright sources under low-light conditions.
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2) Thermal Imaging Technology

Thermal imaging technology captures the upper part of the infrared light spectrum, which is emitted as heat. In general, the hotter an object is, the more radiation it emits. Hotter objects, like live bodies, emit more of this infrared light than cooler objects, like buildings. They operate on the principal that all objects emit infrared energy as a function of their temperature. Thermal imaging night vision methods do not require no ambient light. Thermal images are normally black and white in nature, where black objects are cold and white objects are hot. Some thermal cameras show images in color. This false color is an excellent way of better distinguishing between objects at different temperatures.

Advantages:

  • High sensitivity in low-light.
  • High speed imaging capability.
  • Good daytime imaging performance.
  • Reduced likelihood of damage to the imaging detector due to viewing bright sources.

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