5 ms·

Seeing infrared: contact lenses that grant 'super-vision'

40 points by colinprince 1y ago

LlamaTrauma 1y ago
This is super cool, I've wondered if this wort of thing could be possible and I guess it is. The applications given are funny though. I can't think of any applications either, but "helping people with color-blindness" reads like the ol' search and rescue excuse [1]. I think they're talking about shifting colors around so less color is perceived in the wavelengths they can't see? [1] https://xkcd.com/2128/ https://xkcd.com/2128/
- wkat4242 1y ago
  It's pretty nifty though because besides changing the wavelength it must also preserve the exact direction of each photon. Without the correct light field you'd see nothing.
aaroninsf 1y ago
Three month old article. What is most of interest to me in this research is that having a handle on stable and bio-safe chemistry that is reactive in near-visible spectra, allows for a future wherein that chemistry is baked into additional cones, allowing for polychromacy, which might conceivably result in new qualia ("colors as they are perceived by the viewer" as in classic dorm-room arguments about whether one person's blue is another's red). It'd be nice for our civilization to persist long enough, and to live long enough, to not just be around when that happens but have opportunity to try it out.
- Nevermark 1y ago
  Neural implants are going to open up even wider possibilities dramatically. Given how fast things are changing, one can imagine that digital visual feed implants, providing conscious control of wide spectrum sensitivity, won't be so far off. Beyond tetrachromacy, think "Kilochromacy". Whatever that would be like! (A few short neural link, and cognitive amplification, generations in.)
m463 1y ago
I think of the Radio Shack passive infrared card. It was a plastic card that you could place under a light to "charge" and then if you aimed a remote control at it and pressed a button - it would glow red. It would kick up infrared passively into the visible light spectrum.
- wkat4242 1y ago
  Of yeah i remember those. It was great to check if a remote was working. These days I just use my phone camera. The IR filter isn't perfect and IR leds are tons brighter than visible ones so if you point it right at the camera you can easily see it.
lloydatkinson 1y ago
How can people publish articles like this and not even show some type of mockup of what it might look like?
- Neywiny 1y ago
  My problem with traditional media. It's like they get the basic concept of an article but don't focus on the learning/teaching aspect.
  - lloydatkinson 1y ago
    Yes, its frustrating. Just like how they never give links to papers, websites, demos, videos, or anything either.
trod1234 1y ago
While this sounds cool, the issues it raises are not. Many people are unaware that the wavelengths of light in certain ranges, which include both the near UV (N-UV, violet/blue zones), and the N-IR have biochemical interactions, and blocking this through use of a contact lens has been linked (afaik) to myopia, which have many different risk factors.
- saurik 1y ago
  I can only find references to the opposite: that blocking blue light might -- emphasis on "might" -- be help prevent myopia, not that it causes myopia?
  - trod1234 1y ago
    The foundational work was done by Fritz Hollwich, a German Opthalmologist in the 1970s. Supplementary work was done by John Nash Ott in the same time period when he had numerous issues with time-lapse displays with plants dying under artificial light. Together they show environmental light greatly impacts both plant kingdoms and animal kingdom species. Many studies since then have been done, though some are not translated to English. The high energy near N-UV (370nm and below) from common white LEDs may cause retinopothy. Individuals who received lasik treatments between 2000 and 2009 (iirc) had their lens replaced with a lens that blocked NIR/IR. Incidents of macular degeneration are higher in such groups, along with myopia. Prior to 1998 blue-light LEDs were not manufactured, and NIR light leakage weren't issues. There are demographic studies for countries that have high exposure to digital LED-based signage where light pollution is an issue. The incidence rates in school children in those regions are dramatic (~70% iirc); Japan was one such country that studied this. The unfortunate thing is a lot of this research isn't available to the general public because it is paywalled. Its also not an area that has received a lot of funding compared to other areas. The TL;DR is there's a biochemical switch in the eye that travels through to the brain which controls metabolic hormones and gene expression based upon the light you are exposed to, and it is turned on or off based on the levels of natural sunlight you are exposed to and the time of day. There are also a number of chemicals within the eye itself that act as light traps/charge signaling, as well as melatonin based specks which have biochemical reactions with UV, and reflect UV (to a lesser degree). That should get you started in finding references.
extraduder_ire 1y ago
Is there any reason this needs to be in contact lenses rather than glasses? I assume it's very dim if not in direct contact with your eye.
saltcured 1y ago
Not sure if I'm missing something. These sound like fluorescent dye particles? Don't such molecules emit light diffusely, i.e. not correlated to the direction of excitation? It also must be doing multi-photon fluorescence in order to bump up to higher (visible) frequencies. What is the point of putting it in a contact lens when it won't really echo the light field arriving at the lens? I also recall that infrared photography requires a significant adjustment of focus compared to visual light due to chromatic aberration. Would it even be possible for an IR-sensitive eye to accommodate this difference in focus? On the other hand, an efficient upconverting fluorescent dye could be embedded in an imaging screen with appropriate optics to make passive IR scope?
- md5wasp 1y ago
  That's exactly what it does, the article states that > When worn, people could see Morse code-like signals flashed from an infrared LED and tell what direction infrared light came from. So wearers aren't really resolving an image in infrared, although it does appear to at least be a bit directional.
nativeit 1y ago
I'm not sure how compressing IR photons into a human's existing visual range is supposed to "improve" anything, let alone grant 'super-vision'? We are talking about light that's not particularly useful anyway generating noise and clouding our vision as regular red or green light for...what exactly? This all sounds like hype nonsense.
IAmBroom 1y ago
This is upconverting photons in energy... which requires energy, unlike fluorescence (which downconverts). There's nothing in the article to suggest how these contacts perform this miracle of energy creation, nor even how much of the IR spectrum is involved. Oh, and it's "Chinese researchers". So... grain of salt. Many are legit, but bunkum is regularly published there.
- alexfromapex 1y ago
  Upconversion nanoparticles are optical nanomaterials that absorb multiple low-energy photons (like near-infrared light) and emit a single, higher-energy photon (like visible light) through a process called upconversion

40 points by colinprince 1y ago

This is super cool, I've wondered if this wort of thing could be possible and I guess it is. The applications given are funny though. I can't think of any applications either, but "helping people with color-blindness" reads like the ol' search and rescue excuse [1]. I think they're talking about shifting colors around so less color is perceived in the wavelengths they can't see? [1] https://xkcd.com/2128/ https://xkcd.com/2128/

wkat4242 1y ago
It's pretty nifty though because besides changing the wavelength it must also preserve the exact direction of each photon. Without the correct light field you'd see nothing.

aaroninsf 1y ago

Three month old article. What is most of interest to me in this research is that having a handle on stable and bio-safe chemistry that is reactive in near-visible spectra, allows for a future wherein that chemistry is baked into additional cones, allowing for polychromacy, which might conceivably result in new qualia ("colors as they are perceived by the viewer" as in classic dorm-room arguments about whether one person's blue is another's red). It'd be nice for our civilization to persist long enough, and to live long enough, to not just be around when that happens but have opportunity to try it out.

Nevermark 1y ago
Neural implants are going to open up even wider possibilities dramatically. Given how fast things are changing, one can imagine that digital visual feed implants, providing conscious control of wide spectrum sensitivity, won't be so far off. Beyond tetrachromacy, think "Kilochromacy". Whatever that would be like! (A few short neural link, and cognitive amplification, generations in.)

m463 1y ago

I think of the Radio Shack passive infrared card. It was a plastic card that you could place under a light to "charge" and then if you aimed a remote control at it and pressed a button - it would glow red. It would kick up infrared passively into the visible light spectrum.

wkat4242 1y ago
Of yeah i remember those. It was great to check if a remote was working. These days I just use my phone camera. The IR filter isn't perfect and IR leds are tons brighter than visible ones so if you point it right at the camera you can easily see it.

lloydatkinson 1y ago

How can people publish articles like this and not even show some type of mockup of what it might look like?

Neywiny 1y ago
My problem with traditional media. It's like they get the basic concept of an article but don't focus on the learning/teaching aspect.
- lloydatkinson 1y ago
  Yes, its frustrating. Just like how they never give links to papers, websites, demos, videos, or anything either.

trod1234 1y ago

While this sounds cool, the issues it raises are not. Many people are unaware that the wavelengths of light in certain ranges, which include both the near UV (N-UV, violet/blue zones), and the N-IR have biochemical interactions, and blocking this through use of a contact lens has been linked (afaik) to myopia, which have many different risk factors.

saurik 1y ago
I can only find references to the opposite: that blocking blue light might -- emphasis on "might" -- be help prevent myopia, not that it causes myopia?
- trod1234 1y ago
  The foundational work was done by Fritz Hollwich, a German Opthalmologist in the 1970s. Supplementary work was done by John Nash Ott in the same time period when he had numerous issues with time-lapse displays with plants dying under artificial light. Together they show environmental light greatly impacts both plant kingdoms and animal kingdom species. Many studies since then have been done, though some are not translated to English. The high energy near N-UV (370nm and below) from common white LEDs may cause retinopothy. Individuals who received lasik treatments between 2000 and 2009 (iirc) had their lens replaced with a lens that blocked NIR/IR. Incidents of macular degeneration are higher in such groups, along with myopia. Prior to 1998 blue-light LEDs were not manufactured, and NIR light leakage weren't issues. There are demographic studies for countries that have high exposure to digital LED-based signage where light pollution is an issue. The incidence rates in school children in those regions are dramatic (~70% iirc); Japan was one such country that studied this. The unfortunate thing is a lot of this research isn't available to the general public because it is paywalled. Its also not an area that has received a lot of funding compared to other areas. The TL;DR is there's a biochemical switch in the eye that travels through to the brain which controls metabolic hormones and gene expression based upon the light you are exposed to, and it is turned on or off based on the levels of natural sunlight you are exposed to and the time of day. There are also a number of chemicals within the eye itself that act as light traps/charge signaling, as well as melatonin based specks which have biochemical reactions with UV, and reflect UV (to a lesser degree). That should get you started in finding references.

extraduder_ire 1y ago

Is there any reason this needs to be in contact lenses rather than glasses? I assume it's very dim if not in direct contact with your eye.

saltcured 1y ago

Not sure if I'm missing something. These sound like fluorescent dye particles? Don't such molecules emit light diffusely, i.e. not correlated to the direction of excitation? It also must be doing multi-photon fluorescence in order to bump up to higher (visible) frequencies. What is the point of putting it in a contact lens when it won't really echo the light field arriving at the lens? I also recall that infrared photography requires a significant adjustment of focus compared to visual light due to chromatic aberration. Would it even be possible for an IR-sensitive eye to accommodate this difference in focus? On the other hand, an efficient upconverting fluorescent dye could be embedded in an imaging screen with appropriate optics to make passive IR scope?

md5wasp 1y ago
That's exactly what it does, the article states that > When worn, people could see Morse code-like signals flashed from an infrared LED and tell what direction infrared light came from. So wearers aren't really resolving an image in infrared, although it does appear to at least be a bit directional.

nativeit 1y ago

I'm not sure how compressing IR photons into a human's existing visual range is supposed to "improve" anything, let alone grant 'super-vision'? We are talking about light that's not particularly useful anyway generating noise and clouding our vision as regular red or green light for...what exactly? This all sounds like hype nonsense.

IAmBroom 1y ago

This is upconverting photons in energy... which requires energy, unlike fluorescence (which downconverts). There's nothing in the article to suggest how these contacts perform this miracle of energy creation, nor even how much of the IR spectrum is involved. Oh, and it's "Chinese researchers". So... grain of salt. Many are legit, but bunkum is regularly published there.

alexfromapex 1y ago
Upconversion nanoparticles are optical nanomaterials that absorb multiple low-energy photons (like near-infrared light) and emit a single, higher-energy photon (like visible light) through a process called upconversion