The first time I saw some night vision equipment, I was working in a TV sales and repairs shop. One of the bosses friends had some hardware he attached to the front of a camcorder, with which he apparently monitored the local car parks, for the stated reason of car security. I always suspected he was on the look out for a different type of activity, but there you go.
There are two main types of night sights that I have encountered, which basically boil down to passive and active. Passive equipment will attempt to magnify the light levels in a picture via circuitry, whereas an active device will use an infra-red light source (thereby avoiding visible lightwaves, which would alert the wildlife/suspicious persons/sleeping neighbours) and then convert that illumination back into an image that our human eyes can make sense of. If you want a really basic example of how that sort of thing works, pick up a digital camera (even your phone’s camera will do), and point a remote control (TV/HiFi/DVD player etc.) at it. Press one of the buttons, and watch the LEDs illuminate on your camera’s display! A good way to check if remote controls are working btw…
Anyway, check the link for a whole host of night sight equipment, as well as a lot of other optical equipment.
Dec 06 2007
I Can See You!
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