All night vision equipment used by people today has its birth in the armed forces. They are also responsible for other things that we may or may not take for granted. Where do you think the internet came from? Or that lovely frozen dried food you take hiking with you and of course the GPS . Yes people we must thank our military for these advances in technology. Straight to the point though, night vision products are some serious toy’s and when I say toy’s I don’t mean your child’s toys.
In the begining, pursuing warfare at darkness was preferred to pursuing a battle in daylight hours so that the soldiers remain camouflage under the cover of darkness, not giving up their location until the final second of attack. Now in the past this was not always easy as you can only see as much as your enemy can see so attacks were typically planned for clear starry evenings which gave better night vision. But as you know this also hindered the element of surprise. The US Army have researched tirelessly for years researching many methods to enhance a soldiers sight at night and thanks to their efforts the whole playing field of combat warfare has been altered dramatically not to mention the many uses for this technology in the civilian world.
But how does this technology work you ask? Night goggles capture the available light using a form of electro magnetic radiation that is outside the limits of the human eye. Making use of this invisible light enables night goggles, binoculars and scopes the ability to see in total darkness. At dusk and in low visibility conditions the night vision technology allows a soldier to see, maneuver and execute in combat.
The market today is flooded with many kinds of cheap night vision goggles and you can become confused when shopping for a device. There 2 common types typically used 1.Image intensifiers 2.Thermal devices. Thermal devices work by looking at and scanning the differences in temperature in the direction they are pointed at. The FLIR (Thermal Forward-Looking Infrared) detector option is very common on armed vehicles and rescue helicopters.
Now image intensifiers work by magnifying available light 2-5000 times greater than what the human eye can see. This equipment also uses phosphorous screen technology (similar to that used in a TV) to give a soldier as close to normal vision as possible. When a soldiers eyepiece is in place, the equipment will magnify available light allowing an image to be transmitted to the eyepiece giving the soldier an image of what he is looking at. The reason night optics use this green screen technology is because the human eye is able to process more shades of green than any other color in the visible spectrum.
There are endless choices of magnifications available for different lenses, conditions and ranges. The range that night vision optics can be used will vary depending on the application you need. Now a typical soldier may need a night binocular that has a range of a few feet in front of him up to four hundred feet away. When designing equipment for a soldier weight and compact-ability must be taken into consideration and because of this a night vision binocular could be used without any illumination and just using the image intensifiers. This will keep costs down with small, low power and lightweight sizes for easy transport.
One thing to remember when you wear the night goggles, you can and will experience a certain amont of tunnel vision since all peripheral vision is cut off inside the eyepiece. By constantly moving you can counter this loss of judgment to a certain extent but judging distances can still be challenging at times. Another point to remember is that objects can seem larger or smaller than what they actually are. Your vision can vary from 20/20 to 20/25 but the good news is that you can still see. Any military operations have and will continue to be carried out under the cover of night. The FLIRs have really helped in finding human energy from within a heavy cover, allowing for the directing of personel to a certain area to carry out missions. Rescue missions also have a much higher chance of success with the use of the Night Optics.
