How Do Night Vision Goggles Work? (There's 3 types)
We visited the US Navy to test the best night vision goggles in the world. Head to brilliant.org/veritasium to start your free 30-day trial, and the first 200 people get 20% off an annual premium subscription.
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Huge thanks to Dr. Ben Conley and the entire team at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division. You can check out more of their work here: www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Warf...
Or their KZhead channel here: / nswccranedivision
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Video References:
Tyson, J. (2001). How Night Vision Works. How Stuff Works. - ve42.co/HSWNightVision
Montoro, H. P. Image Intensification: The Technology of Night Vision. Photonics. - ve42.co/PhotonicsTech
Brain Stuff - HowStuffWorks via KZhead - ve42.co/HSWVideo
Photonis via KZhead - ve42.co/Photonis
Operator Drewski via KZhead - ve42.co/NVGaming
Night-vision device via Wikipedia - ve42.co/NVWiki
Image intensifier via Wikipedia - ve42.co/Intensifier
Lodriguss, J. How Digital Cameras Work. AstroPix. -ve42.co/AstroPix
Kinka-Byo. (2019). What is the physical cause of increasing noise at high ISO? StackExchange. - ve42.co/PhotoISO
Macias, A. (2015). The secret NVGs SEAL Team Six wore on the Bin Laden raid. Business Insider. - ve42.co/BINightVision
Van Dommelen, L. Thermionic Emission. Quantum Mechanics for Engineers. - ve42.co/Thermoionic
Nave, R. (2016). Blackbody Radiation. HyperPhysics. - ve42.co/BlackBody
Night Vision Terminology - Generations. ModArmory. - ve42.co/ModArmory
NASA (2018). X-ray Detectors - Electrical Current Detections. - ve42.co/NASAXRay
Images & Video:
Osama Bin Laden report, via CNN on KZhead - ve42.co/CNNOBL
Sicario Night Raid Scene, via Movieclips on KZhead - ve42.co/Sicario
Splinter Cell footage, via Ubisoft on KZhead - ve42.co/SplinterCell
Step Brothers Night Vision Scene, via masusockvevo on KZhead - ve42.co/StepBrothers
Ukraine report, via CNN on KZhead - ve42.co/CNNUkraine
FLIR K2 Thermal Imaging Camera footage, via Teledyne FLIR on KZhead - ve42.co/FLIRK2
Chandra X-ray Observatory imagery, via NASA - ve42.co/NASAChandra
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Directed by Emily Zhang
Written by Emily Zhang and Derek Muller
Edited by Trenton Oliver
Animated by Mike Radjabov, Fabio Albertelli, and Ivy Tello
Filmed by Trenton Oliver, Emily Zhang, Derek Muller, and Raquel Nuno
Produced by Emily Zhang, Han Evans, and Derek Muller
Thumbnail by Ren Hurley
Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images and Pond5
Music from Epidemic Sound
Try world’s worst day vision vs world’s brightest room
huh
Hahaha. Look at the sun with zoom
I love it
So look at the sun with sunglasses?
I think you just invented eyelids.
When I was in basic training, they took us out for night shooting exercises which involved NVGs. When it was my time, the first thing I noticed was the night sky! One of my drill sergeants, who was a fairly chill dude, noticed that I wasn't paying attention to the stuff down range as much as he would have liked. He came over to ask why I was not paying attention and I mentioned the night sky. He had never bothered to look and decided to look up and was also enthralled by the amount of stars that could be seen as well as the cones of light in front of planes and other miscellaneous details. He let me keep the NVGs on the entirety of the rest of that exercise. Truly awesome dude, it's an experience that I'll never forget.
The best education happens when something out of the ordinary happens. He was also a very good teacher.
People who keep saying this makes me feel like they've never been outside a city.
@@poopsmith6853 I've lived in the country and I've seen the night sky miles away from cities, but this was an entirely different experience. After getting back home, I looked up 'Dark Sky' sites to try and replicate it. While it's absolutely majestic, it doesn't compare in the amount of stars and detail you get. Obviously, getting to see things with your own eyes is preferable, but if the amount of light it is emitting is too small to matter on the retina, it doesn't do any good. While I understand where you are coming from, until you can experience both, it's hard to describe. What stinks is that I'm not far away from Crane Naval Base but will never get the chance to play with these awesome tools!
@@poopsmith6853sorry we aren't all rich to go travelling every 2 seconds
@hiddenguy67 traveling? I grew up in a place where you can see pretty much what they're showing in the video, with added color. My family certainly isn't rich.
"So there's almost no photons" "In the visible, yes" Damn I like that man.
Is the quote related or are you just gay?
What did he mean by that?
@@rishadkazi8698 no photons in the visible part of the spectrum
he is me fr fr
@@rishadkazi8698 There are still IR photons emitted from other people because the humans are walking and talking heat generators.
Usually if you meet somebody wearing those 4 tube goggles that means you messed up pretty bad 🤣
we have them and yes. My sister and her husband own three businesses i'm retired so i help out.
@@highriskgunman4181 ok...?
Usually you meet them at PvP hotspots. They're worth a bottle of moonshine so make sure to loot them
@@TraGiiXzaze dude i was just playing tarkov when watching this xD
same lmao@@hansenhenry5438
During night watch in the military looking at the stars through night vision was one of my favorite things.
Ever see anything weird? Like a light moving a weird way?
@@timgroen1995 It must be amazing seeing all the infrared from the stars
🤣 Not really, just the occasional aircraft passing through@@timgroen1995
Have you seen any aliens?
Yeah it's awesome
Seeing the night sky through proper night vision is something everyone needs to experience. It's stunning.
It's amazing how much stuff falls out of the sky that you wouldn't otherwise see too
Seeing the night sky at all isn't easy with current levels of light pollution.
I've spent the night at a dark sky reserve, and what I could see was astounding. I mean, you can see it in pictures, but seeing it all with the naked eye is something else. Add some night vision to that? That's going on the bucket list!
But do NOT look at the Moon!!!!
This is why astrophotography cameras use infra-red spectrum instead of the visual spectrum.
My favorite thing about introducing people to night vision is always the first time I tell them to look up. Those stars are just something a video just can't do justice to at all. Truly awesome.
Years ago before retirement, while on patrol in northern Canada, during overcast nights, I would drive sometimes 50 miles away from a street light, down logging roads, turn my vehicle off, all dash lights out, comms lights out, close my eyes for minutes and then open.... Abject blackness, hand in front of my face - nothing, zero light, scary scary dark. However, during clear nights, oh what we could see! Small facettes of our galaxy, many colors and shades. The pie plate of our galaxy was so very discernable. Even our neighboring Andromeda. To the unaded eye! Amazing things were revealed with simple binoculars. Those were hard yet enriching years.
What you did is extremely dangerous there is a lot of danger out there like bears serial killers criminals...etc
@@YeahWhatever1412 I would think they knew what they were doing, as it was their job.
NVG training was legitimately the first time the majority of the people my Basic Training company had ever seen the Milky Way in its entirety. Passive night sight tech is mind-blowing.
James Webb Space Telescope is the biggest NVG of all I guess, reaches way way way into the deep IR spectrum.
I'm uncomfortable with these Canadians being this close to superior American technology.
@@benjamindover4337 They need it to detect incoming moose at night, and identify the warmest, freshest Tim Bits.
@@benjamindover4337 Especially aussie Canadians
I was camping on a mountain one autumn night a few years back, chewing on some psilycybin mushrooms. The sky was crystal clear, and I witnessed the Milky Way in all its glory, without night vision googles. I can certainly understand the mind blowing experience you talk about
I'll never forget the first time I looked at the northern lights with night vision. Looks cool on its own, but through NVGs, it looked like the whole sky was on fire.
Actually had an experience with this about 10 months ago seeing the northern lights in Wisconsin for the first time, but without NVG. They were bright enough that it seriously looked like the sky was on fire, absolutely incredible.
Agreed. I was an Army Aviator in Alaska, and even though the colors were blending, the speed of movement of the lights was incredible
Whoever did the sound design for this episode needs a raise! Almost felt like watching a movie!
thank youu
Nice try Bob. We already discussed that, no Oscar, no raise...😁
People use that phrase way too often, production teams for a big youtuber like veritasium earn a good bit of money, not like there poor
So true. Sadly so much bad background music on KZhead - nice with an exception here!
3:39 har har har har
A lot of older night vision systems rely quite heavily on active illumination, but otherwise use just a less mature version of what is shown here, so they don't have many of the drawbacks shown here. This is why many older tanks, such as T-55, have a giant lamp on the turret: it's a very powerful illuminator for night-time combat. The drawback, of course, is that anyone with night vision (or nowadays, sometimes even with a basic camera) will be able to easily see the giant beam of IR light.
You still dont absolutely need the illuminator to be on. When fighting opponent that has no nightvision or cameras like back then when gen1 was hot new thing, you could keep the illuminators on and have huge advantage, but if there is chance that there is cameras or nightvision around you can use illuminator tactically to light up target you saw to move with out illuminator just from starlight alone and ID it before firing, then shut it off and back out before everything with in mile lights you up. On moonless night with no star light, my gen 1 soviet scope allows to see targets 50meters away, with very minor light pollution from city far away painting little bit of a sky and house windows leaking some into general direction that does not help see with naked eye. It does only allow id it as possibly human on that distance, but its far more than what my excellent dark vision could do with that distance and light level, so even if in passive mode with out illuminator such gen 1 tube could be invaluable in life or death situation even today and as we can see in Ukraine those same optics are still in use there. It sure aint gen 4 like these and using it on one eye any longer periods of time will make you see in sepia for hours, but its definitely better than pitch black of using flares or flashlights.
@@Hellsong89 thanks for the reply!
I took a tour of Mammoth Cave ages ago (pre-mobile phones) that included a brief stop when all sources of illumination were turned off and it was eerie. As soon as the tour guide said "okay, lights out" it was as though a physical force had impacted us. It took a few seconds to realize that there was literally no difference between opening and closing your eyes. The guide pointed out that it was likely the first time we had experienced total darkness in our entire lives - and I was convinced the guide was correct.
did they also show you how much a single lighter lights up the cave? they did that for my group that went through
I'm lucky enough to live pretty close to caves
We did the same almost a kilometer inside a mine on Svaldbard. Very cool experience.
Total darkness in a cave is wild. Especially if you stay dark for 20 minutes or so. It’s very disorienting. You kind of start losing track of your limbs. Without visual reference your brain starts forgetting just how long your arms are and stuff. It’s a neat experience.
We did this in a Canadian mine tour to show what it would have been like for miners who were once trapped inside for several days. I found it strangely nice, but I'm one of those people that likes sensory deprivation. When you have no choice, its probably a lot less pleasant of an experience. Especially for a long period of time.
Kind of a random thought, but it's crazy that in sci-fi, you don't see more "night vision overlays" on car windshields. Seeing Derek drive with such confidence in the dark made me think about a future where cars don't have to rely on active illumination to drive at night and therefore don't blind oncoming traffic. Is it feasible? Maybe not, but it's still a cool thought.
I see one potential issue, car is not driving in dark (city other cars) and need lights to make animals and pedestrian aware of vehicles approaching. Then there is "issue" of all other technology that really on fact that car have lights. I think it would be beneficial to maks small additional screen or just keep such Google in your compartment just in case.
You think about the scene from Terminator 2, driving away from the hospital? ;)
The U.S. military has already surpassed that level of night vision. They were using the type of technology you're taking about in the early 2000's on almost all Army combat vehicles and was called the FLIR system.
interesting!!@@gothicbagheera
@@jurandfantomYeah but the lights wouldn't need to be blinding
This is why I love my job! 30 years in the Army and now I recruit people to work at NSWC Crane! I get to introduce some of the most brilliant minds in the world to some of the coolest and most important work in the world! Great video!
Need any former 2171s?
@@slowpoke96Z28potentially. Do you have a LinkedIn account? I'm the only Therron Thomas on there. Easy to find.
I guess I should be thanking you then for making my life easier sir! I use the pvs 42's as an infantryman. I want to ask you, where do you see the future of night vision going? Considering how good the 42's are, I dont know where it can be improved!
Man science is so amazing. Even when explained I am thinking of night vision goggles as a black magic box. The creativity and intelligence one needs to have to produce this, I love it!
I did conscription here in Norway, we had NVGs. Being an astronomy enthusiast, I saw the northern lights in the horizon and I got excited since it was my first time. It was just over the horizon, but then I had the bright idea of putting on the NVGs, and I swear it was everywhere, and it was dancing above me. Absolutely awesome
Oh man, that’s the dream for me in the future haha. I’d say stay frosty but might be a little redundant up there haha
@@Christiaan-qj8fi good one haha Down south where I am, its pretty warm compared to the rest of the country, despite early snowfall this year. So if youre considering moving to Norway, I would suggest south if you dont want to go balls deep into the norwegian climate. Housing is getting somewhat expensive now though
this sounds out of a book or movie, a truly awesome experience. thanks a ton for sharing!
@@rooknado just happy people like my little experience
@@TheCoffeeSquirel Oslo really is a great area. Lots of culture, beautiful country, still close enough to mainland Europe to bounce over to see things there, and the climate isn't too cold.
I'm surprised they didn't give you access to a COTI It's a thermal imager that projects onto the front of a night vision device and allows you to see both. Usually they're setup to light up the gradients of hot and cold so people and animals are basically outlined like you have wallhacks on
One of the coolest things I've ever seen was seeing fresh snowy footprints being outlined by an ecoti. Its like something straight out of a video game
@@AFOPatches If I remember right it was inspired by a night vision feature in Halo: ODST called VISR. I remember watching an interview with one of the inventors years back where he mentions that the games feature inspired him.
Got to see the Holosun Thermal at showshot, probably the best (and most compact) thermal overlay image intensification system on rails, in the world. It literally does look like ESP, lol.
I'm an engineer for the company that produces these and I work specifically on the E-COTI (next gen COTI). The technology involved is incredible.
@@ryancwaterman, I’ve seen through them and it’s crazy, like a video game.
Nothing beats that first look up at the stars with analog nightvision
Something I could call gen 4 would be Night vision (Analogue) with an IR (thermal) overlay. Seen some videos of that, I think it's called AN/PSQ-20, the specific set that combines both. It's crazy with how well it outlines targets, and helps both search for and identify targets, which are weaknesses of Passive analogue (the search for targets part) and IR (the target identification part)
Its a COTI (clip on thermal imaging) device and its only okay. you are better off learning how to bridge NODs and Thermal. the ECOTI systems are better but only a little bit.
20s are great, battery life is not :/
@@Heywoodthepeckerwood I got a COTI. Yeah it's severely underwhelming.
@@sultanofsickWhat makes it underwhelming? I'm considering getting it but that's a big investment to only be underwhelming.
The challenge of combining analog with IR, is the inherent delay in IR vision. Since there's no way to make IR real time due to the processing needed, the analog NV could be delayed on purpose to match the IR. Another method is to project both on a split screen so that the user can see both methods at the same time.
When I was 13 years old I met a guy in a field out by my house in a small town in Texas. He was working on something we didn't understand. So my friend and I went over to ask him a few questions. It turned out he was working for Texas instruments and was working on night vision stuff at the time. That was in 1974. He let us look through it so we could see what he was doing. We were amazed. A small highlight from my childhood!
I'd appreciate it if you'd listen to some of the records I've done. Ur honest thoughts on em would mean a lot. Thanks fam and have a great week 🙏🏾❤️🔥
Lubbock, TX?
It's important to note that they were not using current US NVG technology. Although the GPNVG is currently issued and in the field, it is over a decade old. Current monocular technology uses thermal overlay image intensification (thermal over the top of nightvision). It's a shame they did not make that available for the video.
Are you talking about the ENVG stuff? As that looks nuts, it'll even outline human figures in what I can only describe as some old school 80's vector graphics look, like something a video game would do, and gives you your heading for quick targeting right there in front of your eyes.
I saw a police chase with a helicopter using the ENVG. Bloody awesome stuff! @@fubar5884
Yeah, I think they made it clear in the video that its more than a decade old.
That makes sense. I would've guessed that combining two things would make it more effective.
The tubes are the exact same quality though. While manufacturers try to fight about specs, the truth is all gen 3 tubes are the same and you wouldn't know the difference if you weren't told. Probably the only application where tube spec really matters is on clip ons, and that's mainly because at 8-10x magnification any resolution difference is amplified.
Night vision is super cool, one of my neighbors was an ex-ranger and on the swat team for the city we lived in, he let me try them on when i was younger. Absolutely incredible
There was a good opportunity here to first introduce a basic photomultiplier tube (PMT) - this lets you demonstrate and explain all of the underlying physics of the MCP in a simplified form. It feels like trying to do both at once left us perhaps a bit short-changed.
Some things worth mentioning: 1. You can use IR illuminators to supplement image intensification night vision, although this will be visible to other night vision users. It would enable you to see better in that dark room. There are also IR lasers for aiming. 2. You can use different combinations of image intensification and thermal headpieces and rifle scopes so that you can use both systems. 3. You should check out some of the newer developments in night vision. There is now multi-colored image intensification and something called thermal fusion, which sort of combines image intensification and thermal vision together.
Yeah, actual tech in terms of night/thermal vision is much more advanced that public can imagine. Thanks to Hollywood for that.
In civilian helicopter SAR the use of white visible light search lights makes the image a lot better too. It depends on the clarity of the atmosphere too, the light will reflect off moisture in the air and overwhelm the goggle. Cool things. Hard on the brain over long periods
I use a quad tube for flying similar to the one in the video with filmless WP tubes and they were 1/4th the price quoted. They're absolutely capable of letting you fly passively (no light), but I use my lights (about 120K lumens worth of white LED, and wish I had more) while working because you can see fine details a lot better. Powerlines and poles are the things I have to look out for the most, and they reflect a lot more light than their surroundings when using lights. As far as being hard on the eyes, not as much as you'd think. The WP causes less fatigue compared to green, the real problem is the amount of weight you have on your head. To put it in perspective, I strap a 2lb scuba diving weight and a battery pack to the back of my helmet to balance the NV on the front so I'm not having to exert any force to hold them up. The problem there is now I have about 4.5lbs of extra weight on my head, and when you're in a turn pulling a few G's, it's difficult to keep your head pointing where you need it to be. As long as you can keep your head's CG centered on your spine, it'll stay there without fighting it, but that's not always easy to do when you're trying to maintain spatial awareness. The alternative is going with a lightweight ANVIS9, they're actually light enough that the battery pack alone can balance them...but the loss of peripheral vision and subsequent spatial awareness is like going back to the dark ages. I had a set of 9's with multi color, they didn't add a whole lot of benefit and honestly were a little more confusing to use than straight WP. I do have a COTI for my quad tube, and it's absolutely awesome when I'm using them out of the plane for hunting of whatever. Has a tiny little projector that sticks out in front of the objective lens to show the thermal's image through the tube. It's like a little round window in the center of the tube, and heat signatures get brighter when you pan over them. But good lord, if the quad tubes weren't heavy enough, that COTI makes them feel twice as heavy. I have to strap on an extra pound of lead to my helmet to balance them. With that kind of mass you start having issues with inertia wanting to make your head keep going when you look one way or another, and it really gives your neck muscles a workout. An hour or two is all I can handle before I start getting fatigued and holding my helmet up with my hands just to give my head and neck a break.
Was waiting for them to at least mention a what i believe is a now popular (although expensive) to have image amplification AND thermals combined, just about a simple google search away from more information on that.
What about denoising?
The fact that they figured this out and it was operational in the 1950's and then the gen 2 in the 60's is just mind boggling. Conceptually and practically, it's so impressive.
not only that, there were a few prototypes used in WW2 as early as 1939, first by the germans than the US Edit: 1939 was just the first military use, 1929 was when the "infrared-sensitive (night vision) electronic television camera" was invented by a Hungarian guy for the UK, meant for AA use
In Vietnam in 1966 our company had a "Starlight" rifle scope. It was my first experience with an image intensifier for night vision. The military had infrared everywhere - tank periscopes, etc. but nothing like that scope.
The German military had the Zielgerät 1229 "Vampir" night-vision system from early 1944, at first used by their snipers on the Eastern Front. It resembled the "THRUSH Carbine" from "Man From UNCLE" connected via a thick cable to a backpack full of batteries and electronics, to make it function.
I'd appreciate it if you'd listen to some of the records I've done. Ur honest thoughts on em would mean a lot. Thanks fam and have a great week 🙏🏾❤️🔥😊
A hidden 6 years thereabout in history, when the Germans invented nigh on everything that the modern world has and uses (unlike NASA, that has been getting well over a thousand dollars per second for decades and has yet to give anything to anyone here below); where they went from terrible poverty and being known as "the whore of Europe", as one third of the population starved; to having unheard of peace, affluence and strength - and having the highest quality of life ever, anywhere, ever. All virtually over night as far as history is concerned; or even a lifetime for that magnitude. All while the rest of the world was in hopeless depression. Wonder what they did differently. We should all do the same. @@ASlickNamedPimpback
I got to try a pair when my uncle was giving us a tour of the helicopter he works in (flight medic) it’s truly enthralling the second you put them on. it was pitch black and I could see mountain ranges and the night sky was so incredibly clear.
Never in my life has anyone given me such a good lecture on how things work, even as not so technically advanced, I feel like i got a grip of at least the diffences. Thank you !
I worked at the Alert CFB, in Nunavut, Canada. Got the chance to use military grade amplifier goggles, I drove to the edge of the runway and looked up at the darkest part of the sky and to this day it's one of the best things I've ever witnessed with my eyes. Also a lot more stuff moving in the sky near the North Pole than I expected!
Alert is such a cool place
@@Joe-sg9llradiation nore than likely
@@Joe-sg9llradiation nore than likely
Wow! So cool to find someone that has been to Alert before! So, can you tell me if it is possible for civilians to go to Alert for a visit to the top of the world??
how were the shipping containers racks
So worth mentioning that military NVG still include active illumination as well. The PVS14 I used while I was in had a rotary switch for settings one of which was activating an infrared light. Those where a version behind the goggles he wore in this video. From what I understand the Army has released a video of their new NVG systems integrating thermal with traditional NVG with *AR overlay.
Unfun Fact: We lefts crates of PVS14s and these in Afghanistan for the Taliban and ISIS to take when we pulled out. Along with billions in other military gear/weapons/equipment. So I don't understand why they're being all coy and secretive. They literally gave them to the terrorists they fought for 20+ years. Geniuses, right?
But those are just short range illuminators on the PVS. For map reading and maybe a super dark, small room. Active NIR illumination would come from your weapon mounted laser/ illuminator. ATPIAL/PEQ15 or DBAL, whatever your unit had.
It's not active illumination, it's a supplemental ir light for map reading or admin tasks. The new units you're talking about are a fusion of thermal and an image intensifier, they're collimated to overlay the thermal highlights over your nv image, there's no ai.
@@hilltop4847 He means AR. They include some Augmented reality stuff, at least according to the press releases. This is for the new ENVG (Enhance Night Vision Goggles). The outline of people is done by not showing the thermal image (which you can do) but highlighting areas of high thermal contrast, i.e. the edge of someone and the background.
@@PBMS123 thanks for catching my typo
I've looked through some night vision that had both traditional night vision and combined a thermal image, This was probably 15 years ago, so I'm sure it's much more advanced now. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but combined, they're incredible. Also remember that the military has stuff like PEQ-15s that have active emitters, or IR ChemLights. So they can make NVGs work in complete darkness.
@8:07 - I love it. I grew up in the country, so I could see stars I never could in the city. First deployment was at ~7000 ft and in the middle of nowhere. The stars were spectacular. Then, a bit bored one night, I pulled out my NVGs to look at the stars. It was pretty mindblowing.
The similarity between photomultiplier tubes and the amplified night vision goggles is one of the many proofs that research in particle physics has really developed many useful ideas.
Yup ive even seen what i belived were likely seconds grade MCP units used for hybrid photomultiplier tubes where it has the photocathode and the mcp of the nv tube and a standard PMT dynode string to amplify the electronic signal. It was used in a chemical sensor for detecting transgene colonies in a culture sample using a special protein. Also seen the same except with a photodiode to sense faint laser energy for a countermeasure system. ❤
I'd appreciate it if you'd listen to some of the records I've done. Ur honest thoughts on em would mean a lot. Thanks fam and have a great week 🙏🏾❤️🔥
During Marine Combat Training when I joined the Marine Corps I used PVS-14 NVGs in field training at night and the difference was just amazing. That model went over one eye, typically set up for the non dominant eye, so we still were able to use the optical scopes on our rifles and retained some depth perception and definition, but it did come with heavy eye strain at first before we got used to it. I'll never forget the first time I looked at the night sky through NVGs. You have not lived until you looked at the night sky through military NVGs. The video is not quite the same as seeing it in person, but still looks amazing
Yeah, thats the worst part. Its like a drug, you cannot show how amazing it feels until someone tries. Had opportunity to play with dual WP gen3 pvs14, i was astonished, and decided to take a couple photos through it. Its not even 1/10 as good and I've never seen any photo /recording representing properly how big the difference is.
I'd appreciate it if you'd listen to some of the records I've done. Ur honest thoughts on em would mean a lot. Thanks fam and have a great week 🙏🏾❤️🔥
Force once no bs, just a very well made video about all types of NV - great job!
Thank you for taking the time to create an incredibly interesting and informative video on a technology that is both incredibly fascinating and likely very misunderstood.
Next video-how do silencers work? Video after that-how does body armor work? Video after that-how to run and gun with Garand thumb.
Lies again? 10 Olympic Medals The Sleeper
Real
I used to live in a renovated garage turned music studio, and it was completely soundproof. To do this, the main part of the house had no windows and double layered doors, so you could get rid of any noticeable visible light. It was a pretty cool feeling, turning off the lights and being in a space that was completely dark and also dead silent. I honestly miss that place, although it was a long distance from anywhere else and made the commute pretty miserable, since I only had a bike. I lived there at the start of the pandemic, and spending all my time inside a windowless room with no noise was kinda surreal. I ended up putting my phone on 24 hr time because lockdown left me sleeping at weird times. I would wake up and check the time, and have no idea if it was am or pm. I still use 24 hr time to this day, because once I got used to it it was just way nicer
Interesting read. Once you have tried 24hr time, you’ll never go back…
I was in the Mojave pulling watch at midnight during training ops at NTC and witnessed the stars through them NVGs. I was bored in the gunners nest and decided to look up. I thought my goggles were dusty because I couldn't get a clear view of the stars. After messing around for a second or two I realized the dust was the stars. I could see them like never before just like in the video. Absolutely blew my mind to see the skies just filled completely like that. Its as if you could have a pair that were so powerful that eventually the whole view of the sky would just be one big illuminated sun made of billions of stars. Honestly awe inspiring. Love to see it being presented here because I've never heard anyone talk about this phenomenon.
This was amazing! Thank you! And wow what an unexpected explanation to a question I’ve been asking myself since I was a young kid. Why can I see in a dark room sometimes but when I focus on what I want to see I can’t see… now I know 🙏🏽
I would want these just to see the stars at night. I can't imagine the amount one could see.
That's the main reason I bought one
binoculars work in similar way. Instead of amplifying single photon , they collect a lots of photons to produce brighter image.
Try pair of binoculars, ideally ones with fairly low magnification and big lenses. These collect much more light than your eye does, and the effect is magical. Sailors used telescopes like that to see at night long before electricity. Fun story: when my brother was a kid, he wrote to Patrick Moore (the astronomer) asking for a telescope recommendation, and got a (hand typed) reply recommending a good pair of binoculars instead.
Yeah, this is the worst way to see stars. Get a nice 8 inch dobsonian telescope and put a TeleVue Panoptic 41mm eyepiece on it. You'll be amazed.
@@UV-NIR-Thermal The military grade googles or the basic for few hundred dollars? And how much do they cost?
At 8:20 my friend who is in the military told me this is an actual problem. The sky is so pretty that people who are supposed to be on guard duty are just staring at the sky.
Can't blame them. Looking at the sky sometimes feels like peaking out from an earth prison, a very beautiful prison.
When I first got night vision I did a bit of research into it and was pretty astounded to find that the process is almost the same for scintillation detectors used for detecting radioactive emissions. The only big difference is that instead of outputting an electric pulse able to be interpreted by electronics NVDs put out visible light.
I'm glad thermal was covered, because its benefits really show in conditions that may be too bright (photonic barriers) or dark (no ambient light) for passive NVG use.
As the cherry private new guy I got stuck with some old PVS-7Ds during the invasion. They absolutely sucked but looking at the stars was neat. I finally got a PVS-14s for my next deployment and looking up at the night sky out in the middle of the the Kuwaiti desert through them was ALWAYS AWESOME! I remember taking the new guys out on a little mock patrol well beyond the lights of the camp, halting, and just saying, "Now look up." Then I passed around the one 3X magnifier attachment our squad had & we just laid out there in the desert for a bit looking at all the stars. It was a pretty great time. BTW, all military passive NVGs have active illumination. Twist switch once for on, twice for your active IR light. Comes in really handy on moonless nights or when you're doing urban stuff in pitch black rooms and stairwells. It's fairly bright too, like on par with your average home security camera's big ring of IR LEDs letting you see about 30-50 feet out depending on exactly how dark it is. Kills the crap out of AA batteries though so you try to use it as little as possible both for security reasons and just to save your batteries. The Army now has the ENVG-B which is a mix of thermal, passive, and digital with an AR overlay. I remember way back in 2006 while playing GRAW 2 with my buddy in our tent saying, "Another 3 years or so and these thermal integrated NVGs will be a reality, another 10-12 years after that and digital processing will be good enough and small enough that we'll have the overlays too, probably link into your optic as well so you can see around corners without exposing yourself." I was nearly right on the money, although the ENVG-B didn't start actually getting widespread issue until 2019, so I was off by just a year on that one.
You're lucky you didn't get ambushed in those "mock" patrols. You've risked not only yours, but new guys' lives.
@@fffUUUUUU 2006 Obama wasn't president and hadn't given the enemy night vision and thermal scopes yet, the military still "owned the night" at that point. Even after Obama, their favored optics were the thermal weapon scopes, not so much the head mounted night vision. So IR light discipline still wasn't that big of a deal. Plus, it's not like they didn't know where combat outposts were in the first place given there was zero effort made to camouflage them.
This is why KZhead exists, videos like this
I'm not a specialist but right now from my understanding the current shift of night vision goggles is actually a hybrid of the latest gen night vision goggles with a with a thermal overlay. You can use a processor in the goggles to toggle on a outline of thermal readings a outlining objects while you look through the night vision. There are examples of this on KZhead and they are generally called enhance night vision goggles or ENVG for short.
Yep, I have these pvs 42
Great documentary! I learned things. Keep doing what you're doing.
Hey Derek, thanks for 14:28. Even though I had a recent retina exam that turned out fine, I always wondered, maybe a little worried, that in the very dark, sometimes I have to use my peripheral vision to see things. I thought my fovea was messed up. This only presented itself when it was extremely dark. This makes so much more sense.
Huh yeah I’ve noticed this effect before but never knew why
I noticed that too a couple of times (especially with stars) and never thought about it. I love these small explanations combined with such videos.
When I was about 10 I mentioned this to my Dad. He said when he was in the Air Force they were trained to use their peripheral vision when spotting things in low light situations.
Sometimes, when the night sky is clear and I look up, I see the Pleiades as a fuzzy smudge when my eyes are focused elsewhere. However, when I look directly at them, I see them as faint little points. I used to wonder why that happens, but now I know.
China might have better technology.....
Now imagine the tech they’re using in the field that they can’t tell you about.
They have cameras that can see through walls
@@stigccold stuff that
@@stigcc They don't need cameras to see through walls. I remember seeing a demonstration where a passive radio receiver was using existing wifi and cellphone signals to see through just about anything.
@@RingingResonance Yeh, that was in Batman movie, genius...
Our thermal imagers could see a guy's head 4km away, It's impressive how much contrast it can create for such small differences in temperature.
Can't comment on that one.
I LOVED looking at the stars through PVS-31's. On a long pursuit in the middle of the Easter Pacific, I'd end up looking up at the stars. We'd be over 10-20 miles out from our target, and I had nothing to do but look around. So star gazing I went.
It was cool to see the cutting edge working. Night vision goggles fall onto my '2 week' list. Tech items I'd love to get to play with for two weeks and then would pretty much be done with.
No not "cutting edge" this tech (Gen 3 and Gen 2+ nvgs) have been around for decades the GPNVG-18 (the quad nods) are about a decade old. The cutting edge would be the IVAS, and ARNVG program
That moment when a person sees the night sky through NVG's for the first time is such a wholesome thing to witness.
Truly amazing video. Well done to the Veritasium team! I would love to have a set of NVGs but truthfully I don't really have a decent use for them. Especially as the good ones are so expensive. Nice to have and extraordinarily cool but thats about it.
This channel is one of the best things to have ever happened to KZhead!
I wanna see you cover a COTI (Clip On Thermal Imaging) next. It's a wonderful addition not many people get the chance to learn about. It's an addition to night vision that combines the positives of night vision and thermal imaging. It is still a very new tech, so I would love to see this channel cover it.
CLIP ON to night vision or rifle scopes ? or are you talking about night vision with a thermal overlay ?
You mean something like Jerry C5 ?
I have one. It's quite underwhelming.
COTI has serious limitations, better option is ‘fused imaging’
For those wondering, you can also use the infrared active illumination to light things up for the image intensification style tubes. That's what those plastic boxes are that you often see on the end of a soldier's rifle, they have a infrared laser and illuminator on them for designation and illumination of a target. The fully laser-based illuminators don't give off that red-pink glow that you saw in the video, that usually happens with an LED based illuminator, so it's totally invisible to non-nightvision capable targets.
If you buy LED for remote controls, you have two options: 840nm, which are the ones with the faint red glow, and if you spend a few more cents per LED, you can also get 920nm, that do not emit a visible red point. Image Intensifiers usually collect photons down to 1050nm. So take a good remote control, and Bob´s your uncle.
Those are becoming useless as time goes on. Everyone has NVD now days
@@noballs12345 And then they'll just have to be used with discipline, same as a whitelight.
@@floatingpyro2050 We've strayed away from them recently. I'm talking simple instructions on not even using them for room clearing and cordon security. In my entire career in the military, I don't think I've ever used whitelight and have almost never even used red/blue/green light. They way its being used now is closer to non secure communications.
The red pink glow is not visible to the eye, but to the camera. Camera sensors can see near infrared light and it often gets interpreted as magenta.
thanks for this wonderful video Veritasium!
This is my favourite video of all, the technology is fascinating,I think the tech behind these googles can be easily reverse engineered using ML accelerated optimisation in its physical build
I wish you've have show some of the ENVG-B's, though considering how new they are they probably so classified that just trying to get a pair takes alot of red tape cutting. For those who are wondering - ENVGs or Enhanced Night Vision Goggles combine thermal imaging and night vision using an augmented display. Effectively you get the low light detail that night vision gives, combined with thermal properties usually on the leading edges of objects. It allows the user to distinguish thermal targets and also see in detail what/who they are. The image produced is quite spectacular though few images/videos of the view exist.
yeah i was really hoping when he was like "each one has its own drawbacks blah blah blah, and that's why they combined the two to make these" but sadly not
Wait till you hear about L3's F-Panos :)
Very similar to the ECoti- but completely built in. Very cool. I love my thermal clip ons, but it's definitely heavy. And a little awkward to the eye
@@squidwardo7074yep...
You can't get the ENVG's without LEO/MIL status currently, but you can absolutely get something similar with a Jerry FB. It may not be as sleek but you can kit it out with better tubes than what the ENVG comes with for better performance. And the F-Panos sound wicked....in capability and in what it'll do to your neck after a few hours.
This channel has maintained, if not increased the quality of its content over a decade! Astounding!
Definitely increased in my opinion! Even more so in the past 1 or 2 years I'd say.
I dont think so, there are still many videos spreading lies
like what?@@FlagerMiszcz
@@smooth_yogurto720 My guess, he is a flat earther.
Bill Gates? George Soros? Chips? Reptoids? Please let me know, I don't want to be enslaved! @@FlagerMiszcz
Thanks for the content! I am appreciating more military context videos.
I think I read about the military having a "gravity density scanner" that lets them "see" places where there is slightly less gravity like tunnels underground. I want to see a video on that.
I feel like this video is just a promotional video for the US military.
*US Navy
I love the amount of planning that went into this video that you even thought of shooting during a moonless night! Amazing!
US Navy: "cAnT tAlK aBoUt tHaT" World Of Tanks Discord: "Here is a .pdf from the US Navy describing exactly how their latest nvgs work."
21:38 So they have Hitler locked in a basement doing bad jumping jacks? Interesting development
It's really cool, that the insulator plate with the tiny channels can effectively just work like an incredibly compact photomultiplier! Very interesting.
Amazing episode, Derek! Thank you soo much for sharing your knowledge. I leaned a lot and it is super entertaining. This is the reason you are my favorite creator on KZhead. Your videos have so much value 🙂
the part where you explained the photoreceptors in the eyes (rods and cones) is really cool. when I'm in a dark room I sometimes look at things out of the corner of my eye beacuase i can't make them out otherwise. this explains why this works, very interesting.
Just bought my first gen 2+, can't wait for it to arrive.
I remember my first time wearing NVD's at MCT SOI West. We were at the range doing night shoots, and the time inbetween shoots I would just stare up at the sky and be amazed at how many more stars you could see. Easily made the 2 days in the rain hiking back and forth to the range and the hooches more tolerable.
Awe Emily’s reaction to seeing all the stars is beautiful ❤
Missed opportunity when he said "extremely hot, like the sun"
She saw an alien
@@stigcc or burns with the intensity of a million billion suns?
That is my favorite part of showing people NV, by a long shot. "Ohk now look up" "Oh my God!"
it's absolutly amzing out of the world! man, I know how much it took to just record the each second of this video really great work by kold and team!! feels motivated after watching this!!!
I really loved this infotainment. I especially loved the fact about stars being seen out of the corner of your eye(s) but disappear when looks at directly. How cone receptors are retina centered and observe colors and rods are retina bordered and perceive best in low light conditions. So much fascinating information for civilians to know BUT not enough information to disclose crit-ops.
20:06 You can actually see cold air going in his nose and hot air coming out.
Last 2 weeks I had my annual mandatory field training, and for 2 days, a battle simulation was planned. We started at 0400 in the morning, you could not see a thing. When I switched on the new NVG generation we received this year (Theon Nyx), I was absolutely amazed by how far technology has come over the years. It's just like at daytime (everything b/w ofc, similar to the light blue in this video). Except you can see everything at the natural resolution of your eyes. We were joking a lot about the older gen models. Really green picture, heavy, not very comfortable, the new ones are like 4K-video in comparison to 480p. All with a single AA-battery. It almost feels natural, after a while you get really used to it. After 2h the weight gets a bit tiring, but thats ok. The crazy thing is how easy it is to spot someone with these. Especially with smart watches that measure your pulse. It's impossible to see them with your eyes, but their sensor is really bright in near IR, even from more than 100m away. Same goes for smartphones proximity sensors. They do not even have to be activated to be highly visible, even in a pocket and through multiple layers of fabric. Flashlights are a no brainer, it's almost like a signal flare, no matter how far the distance is. Also, some fabrics (eg. sport underwear) may look dark or olive green in visible light, but in the IR spectrum they shine bright, almost white. So almost any electronic device, or the wrong clothing is an easy target with the newest NVG. I think the one in the video is of similar quality. But the video doesn't do it any justice. It's A LOT better if you see it through your own eyes.
This episode was much better quality Reminds me of old jontron and i love the love and effort here!
Fantastic video! Thanks for highlighting the value and relevance of Navy (and DoD) Warfare Centers, as well as the civilian career opportunities.
Greetings,from Mr Axel Vasa the west coast wizard himself. I have got something essential to share with you. Let's keep spreading much love and positive light to the world. 💯❤️🙏
Buying a top of the line NVG setup has been the best decision I've ever made. Going to night shoots is awesome, but I use them even more for night hikes, star gazing, night kayaking, all kinds of stuff. You can see shooting stars every 2 or 3 minutes that you can't see with the naked eye. Sure they were like 12 grand. But totally worth it.
night hikes are so much fun
the copium is real
12 grand is pvs-31 money
What do you do for a living?
Now what would happen if you had the worlds darkest protection glasses in the worlds brightest room?
yse
I would assume there would be a clause that they had to be see through? Otherwise you would just put on an eyemask lol
WHY
My guess for the world's brightest room would probably be the Laser Inertial Fusion Energy experimental reactor at Lawrence Livermore national lab. But given that the room uses lasers powerful enough to trigger a nuclear reaction I doubt you could survive the world's brightest room.
Just paint swimming goggles with vantablavk
There are a lot of super interesting things going on in optics research these days. Not sure if the research has progressed enough thus far, but it would be cool to one day see a Veritasium video on soliton microcombs and what they will do for spectroscopy and data transmission.
One of the highlights of my experience at NTC was seeing the seeing the sky fort Irwin has VERY little light pollution, and since i was a driver i had NVGs. Seeing the Milky Way under those conditions was immeasurably beautiful, not to mention a huge comet that was flying by as well
I’m going to NTC in a couple days, now I’m intrigued to see the sky with the googles :))
@@gabrielzapata3762 good luck dude it was not a pleasant experience for me 💀💀💀
The way you described the way the goggles works sounds like the whole process of an X-ray tube all the way to a CR plate only your viewing it instantly instead of latent. Which is mind blowing because it's so small
The bar test is called MTF modulation transfer function, a test to to determine the resolution of your optical system using black and white lines at ever increasing frequencies until it blurs. The micro channel plate is made using a glass drop forge, the hollow glass tube is stretched like a long piece of spaghetti then then folded in half and stretched again and they keep doing this until it has thousands of channels. The resulting glass rod is cut at a slight angle so electrons don't shoot straight through but impact the channel walls. The MCP charge across it in the 10s of KVs range. There is nothing you can't easily look up about the photocathode and phosphor screen on either end.
Thanks for going over this technology; I was confused 😅 so awesome!
0:56 That green LED, exactly what you want facing out toward the enemy when you trying to be sneaky. Such a wonderful design.
I was in US Navy (1998-2001) and got to use the FLIR cameras in shipboard firefighting training (they were a lot more bulky than the ones shown in this video) but, my goodness, they work so well.
As a civilian, I think this navy researcher is a really good representative for our armed forces research and development. I just like his bearing and how he carries himself.
The Vietnam-era Starlite scope was a classified item and tightly controlled. Only certain units could use them. Standing orders were that if there was imminent danger of capture, the destruction of the scope was top priority.
I spent 2 years working on night vision for the military. I made a backlit display with 120 db of dynamic range. You eye uses rods and cones, I also had to shift gears from a small converter to a bigger bigger converter. The photo diode in the feedback loop has 120 db range.
120dB dynamic range? 🤯 Very impressive indeed!
11:59 - 13:40 that is such an amazing animation to display what's going on. Thank you Veritasium! 💯🏆💯
Tip of the cap for this excellent characterization and showcase of the different kinds of NVDs. Definitely one of the most comprehensive and entertaining pieces we've seen on these technologies from a popular media source!
I think one can safely say the resolution is very high for the best NVG's - much better than shown here.
having tears because you can watch the beauty of a night sky tells you a lot of what a good soul she must have
14:42 Making it easier for people to make out? Wow...after dark parking lot romance in 2023
military gets bored
watchuing your videos is what it feels like when youre a kid watching a show made for adults, you understand the bare minimum but just enough to not turn off or be uninterested and you take away so much that it feels like its better than school and no teacher could explain it that well
Does any 90s kids remember those _"night vision goggles"_ that was green plastic glasses with a flashlight? Lol
So informative and concise! Great video!