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21 Jan 09 How Night Vision Works

The Night Vision Store & The Opticstore

During the history of warfare, operations at night have always been degraded significantly, if not totally avoided. Typically, soldiers fighting at night have had to resort to artificial illumination, e.g., at first fire and later with light sources such as searchlights. The use of light sources on the battlefield had the detrimental result of giving away tactical positions and information about maneuvers. The advent of new technologies initially in the 1950’s and continuing into the present time has changed this situation. The engineers and scientists at the Night Vision & Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) have discovered ways to capture available electro-magnetic radiation outside that portion of the spectrum visible to the human eye and have developed equipment to enable the American soldier to fight as well at night as during the day in order to “Own the Night”.

Image Intensification: Image intensifiers capture ambient light and amplify it thousands of times by electronic means to display the battlefield to a soldier via a phosphor display such as night vision goggles. This ambient light comes from the stars, moon or sky glow from distant manmade sources, such as cities. A soldier can conduct his combat missions without any active illumination sources using only image intensifiers. The main advantages of image intensifiers as night vision devices are their small size, light weight, low power requirements and low cost. These attributes have enabled image intensifier goggles for head-worn, individual soldier applications and resulted in hundreds of thousands of night vision goggles to be procured by the US Army. Research and development continues today on image intensifiers in the areas of longer wavelength spectral response, higher sensitivity, larger fields of view, increased resolution, advanced displays and image fusion.

Night Vision technology consists of two major types: image intensification (light amplification) and thermal imaging (infrared). Most consumer night vision products are light amplifying devices.

Light amplification technology takes the small amount of light, such as moonlight or starlight, that is in the surrounding area, and converts the light energy (scientists call it photons), into electrical energy (electrons). These electrons pass through a thin disk that’s about the size of a quarter and contains over 10 million channels. As the electrons travel through and strike the walls of the channels, thousands more electrons are released. These multiplied electrons then bounce off of a phosphor screen which converts the electrons back into photons and let you see an impressive nighttime view even when it’s really dark. All image intensified night vision products on the market today have one thing in common: they produce a green output image. In the night vision world there are generations that reflect the level of technology used. The higher the generation, the more sophisticated the night vision technology.

Generation 0 – The earliest (1950’s) night vision products were based on image conversion, rather than intensification. They required a source of invisible infrared (IR) light mounted on or near the device to illuminate the target area.

Generation 1 – The “starlight scopes” of the 1960’s (Vietnam Era) have three image intensifier tubes connected in a series. These systems are larger and heavier than Gen 2 and Gen 3. The Gen 1 image is clear at the center but may be distorted around the edges. (Low-cost Gen 1 imports are often mislabeled as a higher generation.

Generation 2 – The microchannel plate (MCP) electron multiplier prompted Gen 2 development in the 1970s. The “gain” provided by the MCP eliminated the need for back-to-back tubes – thereby improving size and image quality. The MCP enabled development of hand held and helmet mounted goggles.

Generation 3 – Two major advancements characterized development of Gen 3 in the late 1970s and early 1980s: the gallium arsenide (GaAs) photocathode and the ion-barrier film on the MCP. The GaAs photocathode enabled detection of objects at greater distances under much darker conditions. The ion-barrier film increased the operational life of the tube from 2000 hours (Gen 2) to 10,000 (Gen 3), as demonstrated by actual testing and not extrapolation.

Thermal Imaging:

Most objects in natural scenes, as well as human beings and manmade objects emit electro-magnetic radiation in the form of heat. Thermal imagers or infrared viewers (also known as FLIRs) gather the infrared radiation and form an electronic image for the soldier. Since they do not rely on reflected ambient light, thermal imagers are totally light-level independent. They also have significant penetration capabilities through obscurants such as fogs, hazes, and conventional battlefield smokes. There are two varieties of thermal imaging systems: cooled and uncooled. Cooled thermal imaging requires cryogenic cooling. Lower performing uncooled thermal imaging systems require no detector cooling but have sufficient performance to provide the low to medium performance required by individual soldier sights, infantry vehicles, navigation, robotics and missile seekers. Present research and development in cooled thermal imaging are pursuing multi-spectral imaging, improved sensitivity and resolution, and embedded signal processing to aid the soldier in target acquisition missions. Current uncooled research is directed at smaller size packages and power consumption with lower cost and increased sensitivity, resolution and field of view. Small, palm-sized uncooled thermal imagers are now available.

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19 Jan 09 Glad It’s a Rental

Seems a pair of soldiers were driving a rented SUV at a test and training range out west one night. Seems an F-16 pilot was getting some target practice at the time. Seems the SUV was in the target area. Seems the pilot was a good shot.

A local spokesman said the soldiers were not hit but suffered minor injuries “while exiting the vehicle in rough terrain.” Personally, any minor injuries I suffered while bailing out of a vehicle and running away while being shot at with REALLY big bullets would be a welcome alternative.

The soldiers had been training to identify enemy targets and direct aircraft to fire on them. And to this, all we can say is, “Now you know what it feels like.”

Have you ever seen those little stick-on “bullet hole” decals you can get for your car? This is what the jumbo version would look like. I just wish we had a photo of the expression on the face of the car-rental employee when this one was towed back in.

Update: According to an Air Force news release, investigators determined that this mishap was due to pilot error. “The cause of the accident was the failure of the pilot to positively identify the intended target during the nighttime, close air support training sortie,” the news release said. The F-16 pilot had been wearing night-vision goggles while firing the jet’s 20 millimeter canon. He briefly lost sight of the target area as rolled and began the strafing run, then misidentified the SUV as the target, which was actually 1.5 miles away. The two soldiers in the SUV were part of a different training project on the range.

Glad It's a Rental

Glad It's a Rental

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14 Jan 09 Surround Panoramic Night Vision is Possible

Modern night vision equipment is state of the art for infantry and Special Forces. After the most recent assault on the International Terrorists and insurgents in Falluja, Iraq the United States Military and the US Trained Iraqi Security Forces put to good use the methods of Urban Combat. Much of the specialized equipment such as the night vision equipment was put to good use in the door-to-door search and destroy mission to round up the bad guys. Navy Seals, Swat Teams, Special Forces all deploy such modern night vision equipment which is used in conjunction with long range binoculars, these units can see thousands of yards in the pitch black of night, they work so well in fact that they are quite addicting. War fighters have been known to keep them on even while in closer quarters where lighting is sufficient without them.

We see the new GPS Night Vision Equipment with all the bells and whistles incredibly useful in the BattleSpace, yet we believe now with the smaller processors and micro sensors that we can in fact improve greatly upon the current designs without adding weight. Actually it seems that now with modern almost off the shelf electronics from AMD and Intel that these night vision goggles, binoculars and specialty equipment could even shave a pound and a half off their current weight. Surround Panoramic Night Vision is Possible and it is also need as per the Air Force Report to the Senate Armed Forces Committee, subcommittee on; “Emerging Threats for Fiscal-Year 2002�? see page 11. In aviation you constantly need to check six so you do not get shot out of the sky. Imagine in the Vietnam War if our LRP –Long Range Patrols had surround night vision equipment? They could sneak around at night, all night and see everything all around them in better than daytime visibility and further than the Bionic Man.

Currently the most well respected and sought after military night vision equipment have extended fields of vision. Some specially designed units have 210-degree vision. This is absolutely great, however we need 360 vision. This is possible using small antenna like tubes with tiny cameras in the ends. The tubes will bend like the sun glasses pilots wear to fit comfortably over the ears. These tubes will follow the edge of the skull and over the ear then jut out one inch and turn back parallel to the skull again and point directly back on both sides of the soldiers head. These tubes can be incorporated with other equipment such as helmets, goggle straps, earpieces or speaker booms, which are commonly worn for inter team communication. The vision tubes will have static cling surface on the bottom, which will stick to the other hardware worn by the team member.

The projection of the rear view will be displayed above the frontal view similar to the video back up monitors above the center of front windshield of a motor home to assist in backing up. If the night vision is equipped with heat sensors and color change to show such body heat, the rear view will not incorporate this, the rear view to save weight will only be the normal green tint color.

The entire scene both front and rear will be video taped and stored in the goggles and can be saved using a USB port and a downloadable cartridge will be water proof and stored in one of the pockets of the uniform. This video footage will be brought back for training at USMC, DHS, FBI, SWAT, Ranger, Seal facilities. In these new high tech simulators the lights will be turned off, a ten screen surround system including 10 foot ceiling and ceiling screen as well; will play the footage in normal speed with sound. A system similar to the NASA Control Tower Training will be used as a virtual reality environment, like that of the CAVE Project.

This way the trainees will have been to virtual battle hundreds and hundreds of times with thousands hours under their belt before risking life and limb in the theatre. The lives we save in the field will more than pay for the additional training virtual reality simulators. We believe these new systems once integrated will save lives and increase productivity in the arenas of urban warfare, SWAT hostage situations, DEA drug busts, Border Patrols chases, FBI stings, DHS efforts, Coast Guard ship boardings, etc.

We should order 15 such simulators and put them strategically around the country for training, day and night, 24-hour, 7 days a week. It is well worth the money and with the current battles going on now we can we will have plenty of action packed footage for all of these agencies and military needs for training. Once we have a video library of the most dangerous and challenging footage we will be well on our way.

In aviation simulators and NASA Space Shuttle simulators they give you multiple emergencies and the most gruesome combinations of hair raising, gut wrenching, adrenaline engaging issues and they give them to you all at once. It is times like that which try men’s souls. These simulators test to see if the pilots have the right stuff. We need that for all of our teams. By using electronic video from the combat soldiers point of view, urban warfare takes on a whole different view. From these electronic video sessions modifications can be made using the latest motion picture therefore change and manipulate the combat situation into a new reality. Is it real or is it Memorex? Am I in Iran or North Korea or am I in the; Code Name: “Matrix IV�? at the USMC base at Camp Pendleton? Look, here it is; Kids playing video games on their computers are becoming quite good at quick thinking, fast acting gaming, this training taken to much higher or ultimate in current technology level will be more than productive. Such a regiment of training is smart, non-linear and reality based. Politicians role play for debates, salesmen envision the sale during the process, athletes use psycho-cybernetics and place themselves in tomorrows race winning, pilots and astronauts use simulators and like the old adage says; practice makes perfect. It pays to practice now before they are firing real bullets.

By adding these technologies and abilities to the night vision equipment in the field and deploying our elite forces with them, we can use those experiences to train our next wave of future fighters.

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