SoylentNews

Graphene Contacts Provide Infrared Vision

posted by janrinok on Thursday March 20 2014, @02:52PM   
from the a-not-so-cool-view dept.

calmond writes:

"Researchers from the University of Michigan have created a super-thin light detector that can pick up the entire infrared spectrum in addition to visible and ultraviolet light. The heat vision technology is made of graphene, which is considered to be the world's strongest material, and is small enough to fit on a contact lens.

Its developers say the technology could one day give people super-human vision and is particularly relevant for use by the military. Other, non-military uses, such as checking power distribution cables or search-and-rescue tasks are also possible.

A news release from the University team is to be found here, while a technical abstract is here. Unfortunately, the full technical paper is only viewable by payment or membership.

• How? How? (Score: 5, Insightful) by Taibhsear on Thursday March 20 2014, @03:20PM

  by Taibhsear (1464) on Thursday March 20 2014, @03:20PM (#18913)

  "If we integrate it with a contact lens or other wearable electronics, it expands your vision," Zhong said.

  ...How?

  The positively charged holes, left behind in the top layer, produced an electric field that affected the flow of electricity through the bottom layer. By measuring the change in current, the team could deduce the brightness of the light hitting the graphene. The new approach allowed the sensitivity of a room-temperature graphene device to compete with that of cooled mid-infrared detectors for the first time.

  I get that this could be used when connected to a computer or other electrical device to be used for detection but the graphene doesn't filter the infrared light and convert it into visible spectrum to be picked up by your retina. It just converts the photon strike into an electrical potential to be analyzed by the detector software. How do you put all that plus an emitter (in the visible spectrum) onto the contact lens to send your eye a signal it can actually interpret? Or do they plan on wiring it straight to your brain somehow? I can see it being a replacement for night vision goggles or what have you, but for contacts... I'll need a more in depth explanation before I'll believe that.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+4
  Insightful=2, Interesting=1, Informative=1, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=6
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		5

• Re:How? (Score: 5, Insightful) by MrGuy on Thursday March 20 2014, @03:56PM

  by MrGuy (1007) on Thursday March 20 2014, @03:56PM (#18928)

  Right. How do you power a magical on-the-eye device that detects, processes, and outputs images and is STILL thin enough to be worn comfortably.

  A less sci-fi proposal would be to integrate this with something like Google Glass to allow someone to overlay visible images with infrared/UV picked up by a small imaging sensor...

  That we can build a working sensor small enough and thermally stable enough to be used in such a scenario is still a pretty big advance, as I understand it (at least for IR spectrum - don't know about UV).

  Parent