The US military is dissatisfied with the night vision devices they have. Yesterday, January 9, the press service of the Agency for Advanced Defense Projects (DARPA) of the US Department of Defense announced the launch of the envision program.
The goal of the Enhanced Night Vision in Eyeglass (envision) program is to create light HDVs with a wide viewing angle and the ability to work in several IR bands. "The challenge is to provide night vision through fog, dust and other obstacles, as well as thermal vision — and all this with a single flat lens," the program description states.
Night vision that the envision program can provide
Image Source: darpa.mil
Existing HDVs provide a 40-degree view, while human eyes provide 120-degree vision. In addition, most devices operate in the same IR range, and each additional requires another set of optics.
DARPA plans to attract contractors to develop prototypes of multi-band night vision systems with a wide field of view and study methods to enhance the processes of converting photons from any IR range to visible light. "DARPA's investments over the past decade have led to breakthroughs in planar optics, detection materials, and new interactions between light and matter. envision will use these advances to develop advanced night vision devices, " said Rohit Chandrasekhar, program manager at DARPA's Office of Defense Research.
envision will also explore the possibility of night vision using direct conversion of frequency-boosting photons from infrared to visible photons using thin materials. "This will further simplify PNV systems by moving from the multi-stage conversion currently used to a single-stage conversion process with increased frequency. Some of these processes even preserve the momentum of photons, which theoretically can provide night vision without the need for any optics, " said Chandrasekhar.
