Night Ops

[Toby]

If you don't like the idea, there is always the best thing to do and that is not have a go at people who are trying to be constructive. Second, so what if my spelling isn't very good? It's my problem (ever thought mybe i have a problem spelling). On that note, why do you learn some grammer before you decided to have a go at people.

There, I've put in some punctuation. It makes a difference. By the way, it's grammar. Anyway, enough of that. Spelling isn't really the issue here, you're not bad at it.

So, I'm not sure, but I thought giving you some advice and some links to similar projects WAS constructive. Sorry about that, my mistake. In future, I'll keep my posts to "no, it's not going to work u r n00b".

Okay, enough with the irony. But fact is, that post was constructive, and I wasn't having a go at you. So you took it wrong. Maybe I could have worded it better. I'd still advise you to look at the links, if you are going to attempt this build.

 

[BFDesigns]

okay, you don't you whip out a spell checker and some punctuation first? second, go to instructables.com, you'll find stuff like A better DIY infrared filter and loads of other stuff. I thought you'd do something like that.

Oh, and LCD displays... they don't bend very well. also, you'll need a back light, which also would have to be hand-made, since that doesn't bend. It's probably easier not to bend it.

another thing: IR LEDs are quite sensitive, and the chance that you'll damage them is greater than being able to see them emit red light.

So anyway, check out instructables and especially this project: Realistic lion mask with stereo night vision.

Actually, an IR LED is a lot harder to damage than you would think (think about how many people drop their TV remote every day and those still work). Especially if it's recessed near the camera (which i would take a laptop webcam and use that) and on the indented part of the bill of the helmet.

And a backlight system would be very easy to build, all you need is one superbright LED, a diffusion filter like the type that I've seen used on some suits of armor, and a small enclosure for the whole thing, you're probably looking at something about 1/2 inch deep and set just to the side of your left or right eye on the inside of your helmet.

The only issue that I see with this particular setup is that you're gonna need some serious silvering on the outside of your helmet as the LED light bouncing off your face is gonna make it pretty transparent, and there will be a focus issue as the human eye has a hard time focusing on something that's less than about 6 inches from your face.

 

[adventchildmatrix]

Actually, an IR LED is a lot harder to damage than you would think (think about how many people drop their TV remote every day and those still work). Especially if it's recessed near the camera (which i would take a laptop webcam and use that) and on the indented part of the bill of the helmet.

And a backlight system would be very easy to build, all you need is one superbright LED, a diffusion filter like the type that I've seen used on some suits of armor, and a small enclosure for the whole thing, you're probably looking at something about 1/2 inch deep and set just to the side of your left or right eye on the inside of your helmet.

The only issue that I see with this particular setup is that you're gonna need some serious silvering on the outside of your helmet as the LED light bouncing off your face is gonna make it pretty transparent, and there will be a focus issue as the human eye has a hard time focusing on something that's less than about 6 inches from your face.

thx for the input i had not though about the laptop webcam approch that seems more viable

plus thx for the info on the backlight hadn't thought about that one will have to look about tinting enough so that i can see out with out my face becoming a christmas tree to anyone out side

 

[BFDesigns]

thx for the input i had not though about the laptop webcam approch that seems more viable

plus thx for the info on the backlight hadn't thought about that one will have to look about tinting enough so that i can see out with out my face becoming a christmas tree to anyone out side

Yep, no problem! Also look into your own personal eye focus distance so that you can make sure that you can get the display far enough away from your eyes or get some kind of thin magnifying/divergent filter to put over the top of it so that you can see your image.

BTW, you may want to use a red backlight at night, here's the science behind that: There are 2 types of cells that make up your retina, rods and cones. Cones are what give humans extremely sharp daytime vision and are highly sensitive the the red area of the electromagnetic (visual light) spectrum. They are also concentrated near the center of the retinas which is why if you are in an extremely dark environment, you cannot see anything directly in front of you (go on a night hike out in the deep, dark woods on a moonless night if you don't believe me; any image directly in front of you will bleach out black).

On the other end of the spectrum, you have the rod cells in your eyes. These are the cells that allow you to perceive that extremely dark woods environment in shades of black, white, and gray. You can see with them incredibly well peripherally as they are more concentrated on the outer rings of your retinas. They are also highly susceptible to blue light (the darker part of the spectrum). Green light on the visual spectrum is very near to blue light and will affect your night vision because it will overstimulate your rod cells whereas red light will only give stimulus to your cone cells and save your night vision. That's why the military uses red filters at night to read maps. They use the green lighting in the NVGs to help stimulate your whole eye as both rods and cones peak on opposite sides of the green wavelength, this makes your view through NVGs super sharp!

 

[ninjaspartan]

That sounds good, but I figure I'll do things the American way- wait for the English to have a breakthrough, then perfect it and take all the credit. Thanks, buddy!

dido