Night vision

About: Night vision is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6004 publications have been published within this topic receiving 67372 citations.

Relationship between night myopia and night-time motor vehicle accidents

Abstract: Purpose: To investigate the relationship between night myopia and the occurrence of night-time motor vehicle accidents in a group of professional drivers. Methods: We examined 136 professional drivers. Refraction was determined in full illumination (100 cd/m(2)) and after sitting in darkness for 5 mins. The change in refraction, indicative of night myopia, was correlated with the number of motor vehicle accidents in which each driver was involved (detailed in their personal files) and with the results of a visual complaints questionnaire. Results: The mean age of the study group was 21.0 years. Mean spherical refraction changed from + 0.11 dioptres (D) in light to - 0.17 D after dark adaptation for 5 mins. Night myopia was found in 34 drivers (25%), at a mean of - 1.2 D (range - 0.75 D to - 3.50 D). There was no statistically significant difference between these drivers and the rest of the group in the results of the visual complaints questionnaire, or in the number of accidents occurring during the day. However, drivers with a myopic shift > 0.75 D were involved in more accidents at night than the rest of the group (p = 0.044). Conclusions: In this study population, drivers with night myopia of > 0.75 D were more likely to be involved in night-time accidents. This may imply that selected groups of drivers should be examined for night myopia. Language: en

Deep Learning Thermal Image Translation for Night Vision Perception

Abstract: Context enhancement is critical for the environmental perception in night vision applications, especially for the dark night situation without sufficient illumination. In this article, we propose a thermal image translation method, which can translate thermal/infrared (IR) images into color visible (VI) images, called IR2VI. The IR2VI consists of two cascaded steps: translation from nighttime thermal IR images to gray-scale visible images (GVI), which is called IR-GVI; and the translation from GVI to color visible images (CVI), which is known as GVI-CVI in this article. For the first step, we develop the Texture-Net, a novel unsupervised image translation neural network based on generative adversarial networks. Texture-Net can learn the intrinsic characteristics from the GVI and integrate them into the IR image. In comparison with the state-of-the-art unsupervised image translation methods, the proposed Texture-Net is able to address some common challenges, e.g., incorrect mapping and lack of fine details, with a structure connection module and a region-of-interest focal loss. For the second step, we investigated the state-of-the-art gray-scale image colorization methods and integrate the deep convolutional neural network into the IR2VI framework. The results of the comprehensive evaluation experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed IR2VI image translation method. This solution will contribute to the environmental perception and understanding in varied night vision applications.

Application of remote thermal imaging and night vision technology to improve endangered wildlife resource management with minimal animal distress and hazard to humans

Abstract: Advanced electromagnetic sensor systems more commonly associated with the hightech military battlefield may be applied to remote surveillance of wildlife. The first comprehensive study of a wide global variety of Near Infra Red (NIR) and thermal wildlife portraits are presented with this technology: for mammals, birds and other animals. The paper illustrates the safety aspects afforded to zoo staff and personnel in the wild during the day and night from potentially lethal and aggressive animals, and those difficult to approach normally. Such remote sensing systems are non-invasive and provide minimal disruption and distress to animals both in captivity and in the wild. We present some of the veterinarian advantages of such all weather day and night systems to identify sickness and injuries at an early diagnostic stage, as well as age related effects and mammalian cancer. Animals have very different textured surfaces, reflective and emissive properties in the NIR and thermal bands than when compared with the visible spectrum. Some surface features may offer biomimetic materials design advantages.

Vehicle night vision system

Abstract: A system and method for controlling a night vision system in an automobile is disclosed. Disclosed is a vehicle night vision camera comprising an optical lens and a low light CCD image sensor array which converts an image received by the optical lens into an electronic signal. A signal processor receives the electronic signal and is capable of automatically controlling a gain of the electronic signal. A timing controller automatically controls an electronic iris size of the CCD image sensor array A display which converts the electronic signal into a image on the display Finally, a luminance threshold detector determines the luminance of the electronic signal and generates a luminance threshold detector output signal for enabling or disabling the automatic gain control of the electronic signal and the automatic electronic iris size of the CCD image sensor array

Design of plastic diffractive–refractive compact zoom lenses for visible–near-IR spectrum

Abstract: The requirements for selecting the initial scheme for a compact plastic zoom lens are formulated. The main stages of the initial scheme of the transformation, incorporating the diffractive lens and replacement of the lenses’ glasses by optical plastics, are presented. The efficiency of the suggested techniques of the optical layout process are demonstrated by using the example of the design and analysis of a zoom lens intended for use in security cameras for day or night vision.