With advancing insight, we are increasingly able to control complex systems over the years. Nevertheless, much modern technology has its roots in the past, including night vision goggles.
Darkness can have a camouflage effect, it makes you invisible. From a military point of view, this has its advantages. Only, you don’t see much yourself. And, by lighting a spotlight you immediately betray your own position. A solution has been sought since the 18th century. It was not until 1928 that the night vision equipment so desired in defense circles began to take shape when the Dutchmen Holst and De Boer came up with the idea for an image intensifier tube at Philips in Eindhoven. Basically this means that the intensity of weak visible light is amplified. The technology soon finds its way to various armed forces.
Nevertheless, during the Second World War, the American army advises its soldiers to eat a lot of carrots and other vegetables with a lot of vitamin A for better night vision. Good for your eyes… In addition to amplifying weak light, infrared technology can also capture the heat radiation emitted by objects and convert it into a visible image. Continuous further development ensures that the technology is becoming increasingly compact and (not unimportantly) affordable, so that it will eventually also become available for civil applications.
Cadillac DeVille
Pedestrian Recognition
With cars it is no problem that you are seen at night, the more light the more beautiful. But there are limits to that, after all, you shouldn’t dazzle your oncoming traffic. In order to see more than is possible with headlamps, the car industry picked up night vision technology in the 1990s. The first car manufacturer to come up with a night vision system is Cadillac. From 2000, the DeVille is available with ‘Night Vision’, in which the image of an infrared camera is projected onto the windshield. In the first year, 7,000 cars are equipped with such a system, but the enthusiasm of the public soon wanes. In 2004, the $2,250 option will be dropped again.
In 2002 Toyota presents ‘Night View’ in the large Land Cruiser and the related Lexus LX 470. This so-called active system uses infrared projectors and a camera that captures the reflected radiation. Here too, the image is projected onto the windshield. In 2008 the system will be expanded and pedestrians will be highlighted. Mercedes-Benz will introduce a system in 2005 that is comparable to that of Toyota, only not with a head-up display, but with an LCD screen in the instrumentation. In the S-class presented in 2013, the system even recognizes animals and the animals receive a signal from the headlights that you are coming.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class Night Vision
Whether automotive night vision goggles will become commonplace remains to be seen. Even the most average mid-range cars are now available with intelligent high beams that automatically ensure that oncoming traffic is not dazzled. The need for night vision goggles has therefore become much less.
This article originally appeared in Techzle Classics issue 8 of 2014.