Interesting….not the definitive answer, but a definite part of the plans, if it works well, and is available at decent prices.

 

Big difference between night vision that amplifies very low levels of visible light, and thermal that detects IR light, and displays a visible light image.

So far, this film seems to shift the frequency of IR light to visible light frequencies without amplification.

Good tech, but not close to replacing NV. More likely they would add this to existing NV tubes to cover thermal at the same time.

 

Big difference between night vision that amplifies very low levels of visible light, and thermal that detects IR light, and displays a visible light image.
B
So far, this film seems to shift the frequency of IR light to visible light frequencies without amplification.

Good tech, but not close to replacing NV. More likely they would add this to existing NV tubes to cover thermal at the same time.

I don’t know that thermal equipment detects IR light unless the IR sources heats up and then it only detects the emitter.

 

If you want a light weight cheap version of this look into "ghost cameras" on ebay. These are digital phones/cameras that have had IR and UV lens filters physically removed and be used passively.

I have 2 that I used for my business.

similar to this

Kodak AZ401 16MP 40X Zoom Astro Full Spectrum Infrared Ghost Hunting Camera | eBay

Kodak PixPro AZ401 (Full Spectrum). (4:3) 16MP: 4608x3456, 10MP: 3648x2736, 5MP: 2592x1944, 3MP: 2048x1536, 0.3MP: 640x480, (3:2) 14MP: 4608x3072, (16:9) 12MP: 4608x2592, 2MP: 1920x1080. 4x Digital Zoom (Combined Zoom: 160x).

www.ebay.com

 

"The researchers' first demonstration of high-resolution up-conversion imaging converted 1550 nm infrared light to visible 550 nm light in a non-local metasurface."

This is the same way night vision in security camera's work today, convert invisible light to human visible light just smaller and lighter. It's also called digital night vision and you can buy it around the 100 dollar price point. The drawback is they require light (just not human visible light) be emitted. No big deal if its from a security camera in your yard. It is a problem if you're trying to avoid detection by someone else's NV. It'd be cool to have in a sun glasses sized package though instead of a brick sized package.

 

This is the same way night vision in security camera's work today, convert invisible light to human visible light just smaller and lighter

Most consumer cameras have IR LEDs to provide some lighting source.

 

Researchers have created an infrared filter that is thinner than a piece of cling wrap, weighs less than a gram, and can be placed over standard eyeglasses to allow the wearer to see in the dark.

So cool magic glasses that might cost $100k but can see in the dark.


In contrast, with the metasurface-based upconversion technology, photons pass through a single resonant metasurface where they are mixed with a pump beam. The resonant metasurface enhances the energy of the photons, converting them into the visible light spectrum

Apparently the gram doesnt include a pump laser and power supply. Note “Resonant” implies it only works at certain frequencies of light, prehaps only one.

The researchers' first demonstration of high-resolution up-conversion imaging converted 1550 nm infrared light to visible 550 nm light in a non-local metasurface.

Ah, so it’s a Vietnam era night vision that requires active illumination with 1550nm light. I suspect they really chose 1550 because it is known to be more eyesafe than most IR sources, since it isn’t focused by the lens ( per bell labs, Corning and USAF). 1310 nm, the other IR frequency used in modern communication, is also invisible but is focused on the retina. 1550 is also where erbium doped fiber amplifiers work, maybe they can leverage that technology.

Im thinking it’s written by a bot, or a tech writer who never did well in science. What they did is really neat- night vision works by multplying photons ( electrically), this converts photons to a higher wave length where they are visible and more energetic. Not sure how it will work in the real world, as you need to convert a wide range of frequencies to get passive night vision. I don’t think this is close to being thermal, that’s like 3000-15,000 nm, and couldn’t be linear unconverted to visable light.

 

How do green laser pointers work

Green laser pointers work through a multi-step process that converts infrared light into green light. Here’s a breakdown of the process:

1. Infrared Laser Diode: The process starts with a high-power infrared (IR) laser diode operating at 808 nm. This diode generates near-IR light.
2. Neodymium Crystal: The IR light is then focused onto a neodymium-doped crystal, usually neodymium-doped yttrium orthovanadate (Nd:YVO4) or neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Nd:YAG). This crystal converts the IR light into infrared light with a wavelength of 1064 nm.
3. Frequency Doubling: The 1064 nm light is then passed through a frequency-doubling crystal, which emits green light at a wavelength of 532 nm. This process is called frequency doubling because the frequency of the light is doubled.
4. Laser Pointer Assembly: The green light is then assembled into a laser pointer, which includes lenses to focus the beam and a power source (usually batteries) to power the diode.

AI generated answer.

 

...

Appreciate the 'pure motives', Chief, but.. 'M'fraid yer gonna have to .edu-smack that 'Bot' upside the head, and send it back to Laser-Physics 101..

First:

...This crystal converts the IR light into infrared light with a wavelength of 1064 nm.

Wrong. There is no - Actual - "conversion" going on within a 'DPSS' (Diode-pumped Solid-State) Laser. The 'process' is revealed in the "SER" portion of the Acronym - L.A.S.E.R. (Bonus carrot for those who know what that all 'stands for' The 808 'pump' diode is Stimulating the molecules within the 'YAG' (or vanadate) to Produce photons From that 'gain medium', at 1064nm - which is not a 'conversion' - it's a 'New Laser'.

Second:

Frequency Doubling: The 1064 nm light is then passed through a frequency-doubling crystal, which emits green light at a wavelength of 532 nm.

This is closer to the facts, at least, but "emits" is poor word choice, because that - again - Implies a sort of 'conversion', which again, this whole process is Not. It is, yet Another 'layer of LASER' happening - a Green DPSS 'pointer' is, thus, actually a '3 in 1'.. Essentially, it is a light orgy.

Thus, please inform that "AI" that Facts don't care about it's feelings. I can assert this all because I used to Build them (and still Service them..) Only I built, uh... 'a bit Stronger ones'..

..etc.. Anyhoo, yah - That "AI" is lacking in the "I" respect..

Read the 'Source' white-paper for all this (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202402777) and, well.. Two comments: (Yes, I Do understand it all.. Used to work with a somewhat-similar process producing 'VHGs' (Volume Holographic Gratings') used in Raman Spectroscopy - which is not a terribly different process to what they are Attempting (note this is all Very much in the 'exploratory studies phase' (at Best..)

..and, even then, it is - and I assert, will Not Be - a 'replacement' for NVGs anytime soon - something the Completely Clueless writer of the article ref'd in the OP seems to want to assert.. Just.. Nope.

Second.. What is Up with all the use of the word 'meta' these days?? 'Metasurfaces'.. I mean.. I Get what they 'mean', but.. IMO, it's just one of those Overused 'high-sounding words'.. like.... 'Bespoke'.. When I see a Co. using that to 'upsell' themselves in their advertising.. I Seriously have to quell the desire to go find my Firemans Axe..

Anyhoo, yah, sorry folks.. No Where's Near a 'game changer' you'll be able to order from the Johnson's catalog anytime soon.

.02
jd

 

Well the x-ray vision glasses I bought back in junior high school never did what was promised.

 

you beat me to it, those glasses that would look thru clothes and were advertised in the back of comic books.

 

Things have changed since then. Once u try some modern IR gear, your mind will be blown. I too tried making some X ray glasses etc from various stuffs, and of course they never worked, but modern gear is a game changer.
Our game plan is to investigate an intruder (revealed by dingo dog going off his nut), observe them using IR gear, secretly without them knowing they are being watched, then at the right time, floodlight the whole paddock with my 20 million candlepower portable battery spot light, and telling them they've been sprung and to f' off, maybe helped along with a little bit of lead from a bang stick.
IR is literally a game changer, with it you own the night as well as the day. Get some. Probably one of the best preps I've ever bought.




Even in this corner of the Universe Captain, 2 + 2 = 4 ... Spock.

 

IR with good gear is a new world view. In complete passive blackness it will bring into view everything as long as it has on the fly realtime controls bandwidths, passthrough filtering, color pallets etc. With an experienced operator it can slide between full IR and visual with an overlapping or scale. I try to say this word everytime I talk about IR.

Emissivity​

It is what determines what is detected and interpreted by your gear for ocular inputs (eye). IR is not a direct 1 to 1 scale of object temperature to detected measurement, much like visible light reacts to objects to give off a color spectrum.
I started with greyscale and liquid nitrogen filled cameras.

Some things and setting may look NV light amplification but it is still IR.
Dog in back yard white hot pallet with a blended visual spectrum.

Same dog with a high contrast pallet

Proof that same dog sleeps on couch but was sitting at door when you get home. Residual thermal imprint.

Ghost hand print contact on wall.

 

Also, remember the stealth principle, IR leds are visible to most modern phone cameras, so make you stick out like dogs b..ls.
True Thermal gear is totally passive and emits no radiation that is detectable, has a shrouded eye piece that doesn't let any light escape and is dark in external colour. A person has absolutely no idea they are being watched, even if they have thermal as well, all they see is you.
Its also useful for other observations. I fact, it was the cause of me being sacked from a previous job. I purchased a FLIR camera for the firm, to trouble shoot electrical issues on panels as a electrical fault mostly generates heat and the thermal picks that up very well. Unbeknown to me, my supervisor was in debt, badly, and setting faults on panels to fail after hours so he could get the call outs. That all stopped when I started a practice of checking the electrical control panels, several dozen of them, every few days and had the faults repaired before they failed. He spread malicious rumours about me to management, who told me to leave.
Around the farm, I run my thermal gear over our solar systems every few days, as well as the actual solar panels, often picking up a hot internal connection on a solar panel before it fails. I've also found it useful for observing the cluster in the bee hives without opening the box, one time finding two clusters, one of which turned out to be a rats nest.
Finding studs in a wall or roof is also a use, and even just observing what's annoying d for dog at night.
Umpteen uses and more I haven't even thought of, best $1 K I've spent in a long time.
Look at the wheel bearings of vehicles and trailers after a run to see if any run hot.
Got something tearing up the garden after dark ? Spots bandicoots, rodents and so on very well, enabling a lead sandwich to be delivered on target.



Ever stop to think, and forget to start again ?

 

I think for these glasses to work you will still need an IR source.

That has always been the drawback to IR goggles, they can only 'see' the things that you shine your IR spotlight onto.

 

Commercially available when? Two years? Ten?

 

An IR source [like a spotlight] emits IR. That IR reflects off objects according to how much heat the object has. Cold objects do not reflect the IR. If you are using an IR scope at first everything appears dark, but when shining an IR spotlight around, it looks very much like a regular spot light in the scope.

Yet someone standing next to you without the IR scope still sees nothing but dark.

 

This depends on the type of IR. Near Infrared (NIR) is what is used in NVGs. Short, Middle, and Long Wave Infrared (SWIR, MWIR, LWIR) is what is used in thermal scopes.

NIR is just outside the visual spectrum, and for purposes of NVGs is essentially treated the same way as visible light - Photons of NIR are converted to electrons, then "read" via phosphor (green or white) by the NVG. This is because of reflectivity of the NIR (much like how vision works with visible, aka "white light").

SWIR, MWIR, LWIR are emitted by all objects via heat, and that is "read" by thermal optics.

NIR as used by NVGs does not rely on the temp of the object. SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR do.