Seems familiar…
Infrared contact lenses let you see in the dark
Submitted 2 months ago by will_a113@lemm.ee to technology@lemmy.world
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/05/infrared-contact-lenses-let-you-see-in-the-dark/
Comments
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 months ago
Before now you had to kill a bunch of dudes, get sent to the darkest supermax prison, and pay some dude a few packs of Kools to get these bad boys.
ozymandias117@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Did that, did a lot of that. There wasn’t any doctor here who could shine my eyes. Not even for 20 menthol cools. Was anything you said true?
Flemmy@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Pitch Black is a underrated movie.
Klear@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I only saw it the theatre because I went to see Shyamalan’s Signs and the reels didn’t arrive so they played Pitch Black instead.
I was lucky.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 2 months ago
The third Riddick film is derivative of Pitch Black but imo, in the best ways possible. See it if you haven’t. You won’t be disappointed.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 months ago
This explains the real technology behind it:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upconverting_nanoparticlesPulptastic@midwest.social 2 months ago
Yep, that won’t cause cancer.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It also doesn’t have any accuracy whatsoever. It only makes it possible to detect infrared, but not to see where it came from.
reluctant_squidd@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
And blinded by security cameras?
Seriously, wouldn’t being able to see infrared basically make you see night vision cameras like they are street lights?
corroded@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Not really. While I don’t have the exact numbers, the output of an infrared LED is no higher (usually) than an LED in the visible range. My security cameras have an array of 10 or so LEDs.
So looking at a security camera would be roughly equivalent to staring at a light bulb.
reluctant_squidd@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Ok, so not really bright, but visible. I smell the plot to a bank heist movie.
Brokkr@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Your phone’s camera should be able to “see” the IR from security cameras and IR remotes. That can give you a sense for home much and in what direction they emit.
The sensitivities will be different, your phone should still help you some.
JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Phone cameras have very good IR filters. They aren’t perfect which is why they can still see the LEDs, but they aren’t anywhere near as bright.
I have an old RasPi camera with the IR filter removed, a remote control looks like someone used an old-school camera flash in pitch darkness. Which is how you can control your TV sometimes even from the next room over - especially at night with no ir from the sun - shine the remote at the wall, and the wall blinks bright enough for the TV to see it, often even after a few reflections.
Psythik@lemm.ee 2 months ago
So don’t stare directly at them, then?
Most infrared lights don’t need a lot of wattage to do their job. They wouldn’t be any more obnoxious than a dim light bulb. Maybe slightly brighter than a night light.
muhyb@programming.dev 2 months ago
even with eyes closed
Not sure I would want something like that.
Iamsqueegee@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
You would if you don’t like surprises.
Big brother: “Okay, open your mouth and close your eyes, and I’ve got a big surprise!” Closes eyes: “not this time, fucker”
qarbone@lemmy.world 2 months ago
How would you get a surprise in the mouth when you’re stuck headfirst in the washer?
Psythik@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Maybe it’s just my ADHD, but the article doesn’t seem to be clear on something: do these contacts actually allow you to see into near-infrared as it exists, or do they merely shift the light into a spectrum we can see, the way cameras do? I’m hoping for the former but I doubt we have the tech to allow us to see new colors, simply by putting on a pair of contacts.
(Also, the mental image of scientists putting tiny little contact lenses on mice is hilarious to me.)
Bubs@lemm.ee 2 months ago
TL;DR from Wikipedia: In photon upconversion, two or more incident photons of relatively low energy are absorbed and converted into one emitted photon with higher energy.
Basically photons are combined into a photon that is nearer in wavelength to visible light.
Psythik@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Aww that’s disappointing, but I’m not surprised. Otherwise we’d be using this tech to help colorblind people tell the difference between red and green.
mp3@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
It shifts the wavelength into the visible range, it doesn’t grant you the ability to see new “colors”.
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Well that’s a lame perk tree
bluemellophone@lemmy.world 2 months ago
To counter the first theory, a contact cannot change the physical biology of the photon detecting cells (rods and cones) in the back of your eye. Nothing can, short of modifying your genetics.
So you can either become part mantis shrimp, or shift the wavelengths into the spectrum your biology already can absorb and interpret.
GoodOleAmerika@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I call it BS
Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Black sight? Binocular Superiority? Better Seeing?
unphazed@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Whatever happened to the jellyfish eyedrops?
hsdkfr734r@feddit.nl 2 months ago
jellyfish eyedrops?
Why would they need eye drops? They are submerged in salty water.
unphazed@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It was an eyedrop that used a protein or something from jellyfish, that affected human eyes to temporarily see better in low light. Been years since I’ve heard anything about it. Another sensationalized “breakthrough” I guess.
0p3r470r@lemm.ee 2 months ago
“I have dark vision”
-future people
MaggiWuerze@feddit.org 2 months ago
"Show me"
Moriarty@startrek.website 2 months ago
"Owww"