Near-infrared spatiotemporal color vision enabled by upconversion contact lenses

5/22/2025 at 6:17:43 PM

I got fitted for contact lenses. The “fitting” pair were used to measure and adjust. They didn’t have an actual prescription. However, they gave me super-human magnified vision for anything closer than a foot to my face. It was clearer than anything that could be achieved with lenses/magnification outside the eye. It was like having microscopes for eyes.

I seriously just wanted to get a pair for fine vision tasks like soldering. It made me wonder what type of other “vision augmentation” things might be doable with existing tech. There’s probably a market for devices like this even for those with normal/perfect vision.

by interestica

5/22/2025 at 6:55:43 PM

Sounds fun, but various kinds of jeweler's loupes and magnifying glasses seem less invasive then needing to stick the lenses directly in your eyes? I wore contacts in my 20s, but don't miss all the mess these days.

by blacksmith_tb

5/23/2025 at 12:04:08 AM

not sure how long ago that was but the mess is very minimal these days. They sell contacts that are single use these days. There is no mess. Perfect for people that use them only for specific activities, like sports. It takes less than 1 minute to apply.

Steps: wash hands, peel the pack, put contacts onto the eyes.

by lurking_swe

5/23/2025 at 12:30:50 PM

I wouldn’t class it as invasive. It’s the difference between glasses and contact lenses: once they’re in, you shouldn’t really realize they’re there.

Although there are many different types of contact lenses (and fit types, and comfort) and many reasons for their use. For some, glasses just aren’t an option.

by interestica

5/22/2025 at 10:35:02 PM

or just webcam + display ;) seem you two too old lol.

by Calwestjobs

5/22/2025 at 11:22:41 PM

One of the upcoming rumoured new Apple Vision Pro accessibility features will apparently be providing a magnified vision area.

Quest 3 has the passthrough API now that lets apps access the camera feeds as well. I’m eagerly awaiting Meta or a third-party to implement something similar.

There’s also other specialist devices for the vision impaired like myself, but as far as I know none of them give you magnified STEREO vision (although maybe the new eSight does, I’m not sure tbh).

There’s also bioptic glasses, but they’re chunky. Honestly give me glasses with micro-OLED displays like the viewfinder on the Sony DSLR cameras attached to a top-tier phone camera sensor and lens construction; my phone zooms in amazingly far yet is thinner than any bioptic or monocular I’ve ever seen.

I’ve looked into building this kind of thing a few times but I think it might be above the components I can get my hands on.

by Fr0styMatt88

5/23/2025 at 5:14:10 AM

VR headsets can be modified by removing IR filter if there is one, you should be ableto see near ir with them, same as with phone. or replacing it with ir only filter... or change camera sensor for SWIR one, for example here in video showing of unexpected industrial use cases of such sensor https://youtu.be/mS4EBbALAFM?t=153

im not sure "VR headsets" have cameras with good enough resolution to provide reliable magnification without AI/ml full of artifacts nonsense.

but you can connect different camera sources to them / to PC they are connected to,

for example some webcams have removable optics, so by removing that lens you get great macro camera, without replacing optics, just removing lens. i used that trick multiple times for reading PCB components type, covered with conformal coating. or with little ingenuity it is possible to replace with different lens altogether.

you should check out mobile phone microphone, where guy put drop of water on mobile phone lens and created microscope. or- lens from laser pointer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOHxNbxm-m4

different angles of incidence of light can make huge difference in legibility, be it for fine work or home.

or changing color(s) can increase contrast in some interiors. or just using one color of light i.e laser flood

by Calwestjobs

5/23/2025 at 2:29:18 AM

That reminds me of a visit to my eye doctor that required dilating my eyes. I was fortunate that it was at the end of the day, near sunset.

I remember walking around later after the sun had gone down, but my eyes were dilated. Around the outdoor lighting and porch lights, I could see everything. It was like I had superpowers and could see in the dark.

by m463

5/23/2025 at 3:32:16 AM

Most of them just use monitor and camera nowadays. You can watch how they work, there are lots of Youtube videos from people in those industry.

by hippari2

5/22/2025 at 3:30:24 PM

Synopsis: Humans cannot perceive infrared light due to the physical thermodynamic properties of photon-detecting opsins. However, the capability to detect invisible multispectral infrared light with the naked eye is highly desirable. Here, we report wearable near-infrared (NIR) upconversion contact lenses (UCLs) with suitable optical properties, hydrophilicity, flexibility, and biocompatibility. Mice with UCLs could recognize NIR temporal and spatial information and make behavioral decisions. Furthermore, human participants wearing UCLs could discriminate NIR information, including temporal coding and spatial images. Notably, we have developed trichromatic UCLs (tUCLs), allowing humans to distinguish multiple spectra of NIR light, which can function as three primary colors, thereby achieving human NIR spatiotemporal color vision. Our research opens up the potential of wearable polymeric materials for non-invasive NIR vision, assisting humans in perceiving and transmitting temporal, spatial, and color dimensions of NIR light.

by ArnoVW

5/22/2025 at 4:51:39 PM

Yeah boss, I'm gonna need an ELI5 and potential use cases here

by wing-_-nuts

5/22/2025 at 10:27:28 PM

Seems like it would be good for marking cards. Make some cards reflect in the NIR. These contacts don't focus, however, so you can't get a clear perception of where the NIR is coming from.

by avidiax

5/22/2025 at 5:13:34 PM

Contact lens converts IR to visible light. Use cases include night vision and seeing if your tv remote is working.

by bobsmooth

5/22/2025 at 5:20:37 PM

> However, detecting environmental NIR information in the natural conditions at night without NIR illumination still remains challenging, requiring further advancements in material science and optical design.

Sadly no night vision contact lenses yet.

by Mindless2112

5/22/2025 at 6:19:48 PM

Well, using an IR flashlight will light the path only for the contact lenses wearer, so still pretty cool and plausible.

by alejoar

5/22/2025 at 5:21:07 PM

Identifying things that aren't the right temperature a trillions of dollars problem spread across many industries.

Though I think perhaps glasses are a better form factor for such tech.

by potato3732842

5/22/2025 at 9:16:05 PM

This is what I was thinking. I already wear glasses. I wonder if there's a coating or something I can get applied that would add this.

by chankstein38

5/23/2025 at 6:44:30 AM

TL;DR You can see heat, and normally invisible IR signalling so you can see your universal TV remote light up and other things, potentially air or liquid currents as turbulent flow, when its sensitive enough (which it isn't at this point).

The downsides they seem to ignore, include the literature showing light on the lower end Blue->UV, and light on the upper end to NIR, have direct impact on the endocrine system through light activated pathways in your eye. If you wear a contact lens, this light is blocked, the same goes for laser eye surgery where a artificial lens is used.

John Ott, and Fritz Hollwich pioneered early studies on photobiology, and funding for it has been sparse despite Asia's myopia crisis; which statistics show generally increased dramatically shortly after blue LEDs came to market in the late 90s, and appear correlated with exposure.

by trod1234

5/22/2025 at 4:56:41 PM

> Mice with UCLs

Holy moly, putting contacts on mice?!?! It's just this side of impossible to put contacts on another human, and not much easier putting them on yourself.

That's dedication to science.

by bediger4000

5/22/2025 at 9:04:00 PM

I dunno, I think a mouse would be far less likely to react by throwing hands than a human, plus, a mouse can be muzzled to protect against their primary weapon.

by vlachen

5/23/2025 at 5:55:39 AM

if you care about the animals well being and prospects then it becomes impossible. if you ignore the 'living being' factor then you could probably do this to anything.

it is as simple as preventing movement ye?

by hellzbellz123

5/22/2025 at 9:49:54 PM

> Humans cannot perceive infrared light due to the physical thermodynamic properties of photon-detecting opsins.

Seeing near-NIR without pointing a laser at your eye is interesting, but "cannot perceive"?

It's dim, yes. But there are perception reports well beyond 1000 nm (like 1.3 or 1.5 um). People see NIR ophthalmoscopes. I fuzzily recall a DIY attempt to wear a NIR bandpass filter, to make bright day into dark-adapted near-NIR night. And two-photon sensitivity[1] can level off the single-photon sensitivity log curve above 900 nm.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004269892...

by mncharity

5/22/2025 at 10:52:28 PM

this can be used in future by car drivers. illuminating road in front by IR light, which is invisible to ordinary human, so you do not disturb people, animals with visible light of headlights

or it can be made into display, you project IR image onto contact lenses, which converts that into visible light. if particle size is small enough.

im not sure about "efficiency" of such lens, we would need more watts to display something on this lens than we would need to project direct to eye. so im not sure if that difference is big enough to not be suitable for wearables or not.

by Calwestjobs

5/23/2025 at 2:33:44 AM

I'm reminded of the Radio Shack infrared sensor card I have somewhere.

It works like those glow-in-the-dark stickers that you charge up under a light, then take into a dark room to glow.

Except the IR card would not glow until hit by infrared, like from your TV remote. Then it would light up red as the "charged up" energy would kick infrared up into the visible spectrum. (or probably vice versa)

by m463

5/22/2025 at 6:00:15 PM

If we pass infrared through nonlinear material, will it produce distortion, which in turn will create higher harmonics which will be in the visible spectrum?

by dvh

5/22/2025 at 4:24:32 PM

> However, the capability to detect invisible multispectral infrared light with the naked eye is highly desirable.

What would be some practical (or fun) uses of this?

by unsupp0rted

5/23/2025 at 1:54:47 AM

This kind of tech will probably have better applications in custom imaging sensors.

Instead of a standard bayer filter you have these applied as filters, letting you map NIR into the visible spectrum and then capturing it using standard silicon sensors.

Though I believe quantum nano dots are already used there.

The money will start pouring in if you can get this idea to work but with with thermal IR; those cameras are 2-3 decades behind visible light cameras because of the need for custom (non-silicon) sensors and tiny (by comparison) market.

by _aavaa_

5/22/2025 at 5:43:19 PM

Military use.

by kridsdale1

5/22/2025 at 5:15:21 PM

I love this line. The confidence! As if humans have of course wanted IR visibility for ever.

by drewbeck

5/22/2025 at 5:44:41 PM

In the past, when armies faced each other on a front, activity halted at night.

You gain a huge advantage if you can infiltrate to sabotage or assassinate the enemy camp in a way that you can see them but they can’t see you.

See the Japanese foxhole assaults on various island fronts.

by kridsdale1

5/22/2025 at 6:33:18 PM

IIUC the contact lenses in TFA don't upconvert sufficiently long wavelength IR, so it's not going to be unaided night vision just quite yet.

by cryptonector

5/22/2025 at 6:40:44 PM

I think you'd just need a couple of IR sources, can be put in a headband like 2 flashlights, one on each side. Even if you don't see much, any improvements in pitch darkness would be great.

by LtdJorge

5/22/2025 at 5:23:50 PM

Imagine being able to detect every situation where heat is a potential indicator of either problems or a system working as intended by simply looking at it.

It would be a wildly valuable tool to any industry that does things. Currently such work is mostly done on a spot basis with IR temp guns and cameras.

Imagine being able to see a failing conveyor bearing from across a facility or a low pressure tire as it rolls by.

by potato3732842

5/22/2025 at 6:08:46 PM

But the OP is about near-infrared (NIR) light. Sensitive instruments for detecting NIR can only detect objects hotter than 440 deg F (according to an LLM I just consulted) and even then longer wavelengths are the preferred wavelengths for detection: NIR doesn't start becoming the preferred wavelength till the object gets up to at least 800 deg F.

The sun emits tons of NIR, so if this tech has a practical application, I'm guessing it is in detecting objects outdoors during the daytime that look distinctive in NIR and do not look distinctive in visible light, e.g., maybe military hardware covered by fabric or camouflage netting.

by hollerith

5/22/2025 at 7:28:47 PM

>NIR doesn't start becoming the preferred wavelength till the object gets up to at least 800 deg F.

My understanding is that due to the relative bell curve of emitted wavelengths a hot object should still look "funny" in the same way that a cherry red piece of iron still looks like iron, just different. Is that not true for NIR?

by potato3732842

5/22/2025 at 8:57:34 PM

I can't understand the question.

But the spectrum of a hot object is not a bell curve. Specifically, there is a sharp cut-off such that there are basically no photons with wavelength below the cut-off. An incandescent light bulb of the type people used in houses in the 1980s and before for example produces a very small amount of UVA, but basically no UVB, UVC, x-rays or lower wavelengths.

by hollerith

5/22/2025 at 8:29:56 PM

Better vision at night, or during cloudy or Dusty conditions. Every truck driver should have them.

Every search&rescue or police officer should have them although I suspect for firefighters it might not help.

I wouldn't at all be surprised if Mr money mustache can make a frugality case to wearing ir contact lenses instead of having lights on at night.

Instead of splashing people with UV paint and using black lights, just party in the dark.

As people age, one of the common complaints is the degradation of low light vision. This will help some.

At least some hunters I know have night vision goggles for going after wild hogs. They could just wear the contacts...

by readthenotes1

5/22/2025 at 6:07:59 PM

Infravision! (For you D&D nerds out there.)

by amacbride

5/22/2025 at 4:05:37 PM

As I expected, it needs additional optics to be useful. Consider a sheet of fluorescent film you put on your eyeball. If there's an omnidirectional point source of light, it would excite the whole film virtually uniformly. Hence the upconversion contact lens needs to lie on some sort of a focal plane to be useful.

by RicoElectrico

5/22/2025 at 4:23:46 PM

so would wearing these contacts paired with glasses to serve as a focal plain work?

by fellowniusmonk

5/22/2025 at 6:01:25 PM

by ipsum2

5/22/2025 at 6:17:07 PM

This is a contact lens, not surgery.

by kadoban

5/22/2025 at 5:16:33 PM

resolution is too low for any practical use case another article pointed out that it makes no difference if you have your eyes closed, as these things work behind your eyelids this is long way from bieng able to help you tell if your date is interested or what

by metalman