Forget the Goggles: Chlorophyll Eye Drops Give Night Vision (2009)

discovermagazine.com

20 points·DocFeind··5 comments

Interesting. It says it doubles night vision ability, but night vision goggles/scopes give 10000x - 50000x amplification. If the scales are comparable and doubles means 2x, then these eye drops seem nearly useless — but of course the scales may not be at all comparable.

Perhaps they could just use some chlorophyll-infused fluid in the goggles themselves to reduce the power/electronics needed (and reduce the cost).

NV kit works by converting the photons to electrons and then cascade-mutiplying them and and then converting back to photons.

The comparison needs perspective. The fact that night vision goggles amplify light levels by a factor of 1 * 10^4 to 5 * 10^4, isn't relevant to the issue of doubling night vision in an unaided eye. That would be like saying the existence of the Hubble space telescope means binoculars serve no purpose.

One might instead compare the cost of a night vision scope versus the cost of the described chlorophyll approach. Or compare the fields of view, or the required weight to be carried in the field.

Definitely. But it might make you more vulnerable to light - getting light into your night vision goggles will make you shortly blinded. With eyes altered due to drops or pills, it would make you vulnerable for the duration of the effect. Goggles you can take off quickly. But for non-military applications, not to have to use goggles to see (better) at night, would be so much more comfortable.

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