Today, we wear “sunglasses” to see better when there is too much light. Tomorrow, we will also be able to wear “night” glasses, to see better in the dark.
It was already possible to see in the dark with night goggles, with those where you see everything in green, like the military. So far, it’s been pretty annoying. They are huge, like a big virtual reality mask.
These night goggles, developed by researchers at the Australian National University, look exactly like sunglasses. This means that in addition to prescription glasses and sunglasses, we will have night glasses that we can take out as soon as it gets dark to see better, for example, when we drive, when we walk in the evening or when we work with little. light
With these glasses, you can see in black and white with shades of green. In fact, they work on the same principle as military night goggles, that is, they will intensify the little existing light and transform infrared into visible light.
Today, researchers rely on several optics and electronics. Through this discovery, they obtained the same result with a film of a few tenths of a millimeter thick. The whole secret comes from a microscopic pattern etched into the film. It is he who manages to guide the light, filter it and make it converge as much larger lenses would.
The price is still unknown. But, good news, this should stay reasonable. The film is designed with the same technologies as semiconductors. Therefore, it should cost the same as a small microprocessor, about ten euros.
However, there is still work to be done, especially to improve the contrasts and the distance to which the vision will be clear. But this suggests a whole new category of eyewear: night sunglasses. We’ll finally have an excuse to act like stars and keep our dark glasses on in the middle of the night.