tolboel@iesd.auc.dk (Morten Tolboel) (02/20/90)
Some time ago I was in the army. We had a demonstration of a small "night vision"-device. You could attach it to your helmet and *BINGO* night was turned into day !!! It used small penlight batteries which worked for quite a long time. QUESTION: how does this thing work? Is it a very sensitive CCD camera or what ? (it was a passive system!) Why is it so damn *EXPENSIVE* ? (the price we were told was $18000 - $20000; no wonder it isn't standard equipment :-) /Morten Tolboel
forbes@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Jeff Forbes) (02/21/90)
In article <1990Feb20.124704.13677@iesd.auc.dk> tolboel@iesd.auc.dk (Morten Tolboel) writes: > >Some time ago I was in the army. We had a demonstration of >a small "night vision"-device. You could attach it to your >helmet and *BINGO* night was turned into day !!! It used >small penlight batteries which worked for quite a long time. > >QUESTION: how does this thing work? Is it a very sensitive >CCD camera or what ? (it was a passive system!) >Why is it so damn *EXPENSIVE* ? (the price we were told was >$18000 - $20000; no wonder it isn't standard equipment :-) > >/Morten Tolboel It was probably a microchannel plate intensifier they are rather expensive. Edmund scientific sells one for about $3500.00. For the DOD multiply anything by 5 to 10 and you will get their price. Companies love to ride the DOD gravy train. Jeff