Night Vision Goggles Project

[candlejack]

Hey guys im completely new here so please excuse me of any stupid errors (such as posting in the wrong thread). Anyway heres the thing; I would like to create night vison goggles capable of viewing a wide variety of objects both outdoor and indoor in total darkness ofcourse. Minimum viewing distance preferred would be around 10m.


Items required for project:

• Torch with IR filter
• Blue & Red filter gels
• Welding goggles
• Clear plastic sheet 10/000

The main idea consists of a pair of welding goggles with flippable shade 5 green lenses. The green lenses will be removed and replaced with clear plastic disks cut from the plastic sheet. Several layers of Conge Blue LEE C181 and Primary Red ROSCO 27 gels will be placed and secured behind the clear plastic sheet. For the IR light source I will be using a Spiderfire L2 Xenon Flashlight with a IR filter on the end at 125 lumens. The light source will then be secured onto the goggles.​

Total project cost: £33.29 Inc. VAT ($51.08)

** I have not yet looked at indepedent stores which may be able to dramatically cut costs **


However, being a complete newbie I have several questions I would like to ask about this project:

• Will this torch give out enough IR light to be able to clearly see objects from a distance of 10m+?
• Are there more effective ways of creating night vision goggles for a more competative price?

Well thanks for reading and please do put forward any suggestions/opinions/previous experience about such a project...all are warmly welcomed and greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Candleja-

 

[Dr Jekell]

You might want to read up on active night vision devices a bit more as it sounds like you are going to create a strange looking pair of sun glasses with an IR flashlight attached.

To use IR illumination you would need something to convert the IR to visible light, that something is called a "Image intensifier".

 

[MikeAusC]

What is the purpose of the Red and Green filters ?

What is the purpose of the clear material ?

If you want to see things illuminated by IR light you need to have an image sensor sensitive to IR light - like video cameras that work "zero" lux. They choose to make it show as green - they could have chosen any colour.

Night-vision goggles amplify IR light and then make it visible using a green phosphor - having a green filter doesn't help one bit.

 

[StarHalo]

Go to your local pawn shops and look for used camcorders that have night vision on them; many of these also feature an IR light that will manage your 10m goal. My Sony camcorder from ~3 years ago has not only night vision and the IR light, but it also has a slow framerate feature you can use at the same time, so each frame gathers even more light - it works well enough to see stars in the night sky that your eye cannot.

 

[candlejack]

What is the purpose of the Red and Green filters ?

What is the purpose of the clear material ?

If you want to see things illuminated by IR light you need to have an image sensor sensitive to IR light - like video cameras that work "zero" lux. They choose to make it show as green - they could have chosen any colour.

Night-vision goggles amplify IR light and then make it visible using a green phosphor - having a green filter doesn't help one bit.

Please read what i said. The green filter will be REMOVED and REPLACED with the clear disks, in which the red and blue filters will be placed behind. The red and blue filters make infrared light visible.

try googling homemade infrared goggles.

 

[John_Galt]

Logically speaking (Spock), it doesn't really sound like it'll work very well... It may work, but not very well.


Save up your cash, and buy a used set of Gen. 1 night vision goggles on EBay.

 

[LightSward]

Please read what i said. The green filter will be REMOVED and REPLACED with the clear disks, in which the red and blue filters will be placed behind. The red and blue filters make infrared light visible.

try googling homemade infrared goggles.

:whistle:
I made a crude set of night vision goggles using an in-fared light sensing Diode, with a condensing lens, behind a mechanically spinning disc, (nipkow disc), with holes in it at carefully placed locations, which scan the image, which is focused on the spinning disk via a camera lens. This was a system used back in the early 1900's-1920's television. I used a small sensitive audio amp because the resolution on mine was only like 500 pixels. I used a very bright LED and lens, in conjunction with a similar set of spinning disc and holes and lenses on wax paper for video screen.

The point being, the blue and red filters, are actually often used to make sure only in-fared light reaches the light sensor or CCD or image translater.

My homemade one worked well for what I used to make it. Many regular video cameras already have some IR sensitivity, just point any remote controller into the camera lens and press any button. You will see bright white pulses of light emanating from front of remote, when you look into the view finder or video monitor from the camera. The remotes produce bright in-fared light pulses, which are picked up by the controlled device by an in-fared light sensor. These of course are not visible to the human eye.

Some people have used old video camera, put blue, red filters over the lens and tune the light sensitivity way up!

Good luck on how ever you proceed! :welcome:

 

[MikeAusC]

The Blue and Red filters will remove visible light, leaving just the IR, but eyes can't detect IR.

I don't see where the IR-to-visible conversion is supposed to happen.

 

[LukeA]

The Blue and Red filters will remove visible light, leaving just the IR, but eyes can't detect IR.

I don't see where the IR-to-visible conversion is supposed to happen.

The idea is that layers of blue and red gels block visible light and let you see near-infrared. It's supposed to work on sunny days. This video says that it's not true infrared and that more infrared light won't do anything.

 

[MWClint]

Candlejack, the goggles you are trying to build are to "simulate" what the world will look like under IR light. they wont operate with real IR light and let you see at night.

kudos for trying to think out of the box tho. :)

 

[Scattergun]

What MWClint said...
Just because you block out the visible light with blue and red filters, it won´t make your eyes perceive any more infrared light... It´s just gonna make you see less than turning on your IR flashlight and watching the small amount of visible light that is emitted from it.