nearinfrared
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Panasonic's new image sensor could help cars see in the dark
Panasonic's new image sensor tech is designed for taking shots in the dark. Literally. The company has made an advancement that provides "electrical control of the near infrared (NIR) light sensitivity of the same pixel in an organic CMOS image sensor." In English, that means it can take photos in near pitch-black without losing detail or resolution -- and it does so without the need for a mechanical IR cut filter.
Sharp's night vision camera records color even in total darkness
Say goodbye to the days of monochrome night vision footage, folks. Sharp recently unveiled an infrared security camera that captures color 720p video, even in absolute darkness. The trick is an imaging sensor that uses near-infrared for illumination; unlike virtually every other competitor, this camera doesn't have to resort to conventional lights (and thus give itself away) to get a vivid picture. It's based on tech we've seen before, developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (check out some video from a 2011 demo embedded after the break.) The device will likely be limited to corporate and government customers when it goes on sale in late November, but it could have a big impact on your safety. Building managers will soon have an easier time identifying intruders, not just spotting them -- while the technology might not stop a break-in, it should increase the chances of catching thieves before they strike again.
All-carbon solar cell draws power from near-infrared light, our energy future is literally that much brighter
What's this orange-like patch, you ask? It's a layer of carbon nanotubes on silicon, and it might just be instrumental to getting a lot more power out of solar cells than we're used to. Current solar power largely ignores near-infrared light and wastes about 40 percent of the potential energy it could harness. A mix of carbon nanotubes and buckyballs developed by MIT, however, can catch that near-infrared light without degrading like earlier composites. The all-carbon formula doesn't need to be thickly spread to do its work, and it simply lets visible light through -- it could layer on top of a traditional solar cell to catch many more of the sun's rays. Most of the challenge, as we often see for solar cells, is just a matter of improving the energy conversion rate. Provided the researchers can keep refining the project, we could be looking at a big leap in solar power efficiency with very little extra footprint, something we'd very much like to see on the roof of a hybrid sedan.
Venus wearable monitor could offer alternative to needles
It looks like folks wary of needles now have yet another piece of technology to look forward to, with this so-called Venus device promising to measure tissue oxygen and pH levels without the need to draw any blood at all. To do that, the system makes use of a relatively small sensor that's placed directly on the skin, which uses near infrared light to measure to measure the blood and analyze both the tissue oxygen and pH, as well as the the metabolic rate. As a bonus, the lack of needles also reduces the the risk of infection, and it's relatively portable nature makes it ideal for use outside of strictly medical situations, such as monitoring athletes -- or astronauts, as it was originally developed for. As you might expect, however, the device is still just in prototype form, and there doesn't appear to be any indication as to when it might move beyond the lab.
