Product: Glasses: Filter
Vision Enhancing Glasses   (+5)  [vote for, against]
Infra/Ultra: It's not just for the military anymore!

Create holographic prisms on thin sheets of plastic. Layer the sheets such that the prisms refract light normally outside the human visual range to just within. Now objects which radiate infrared energy appear with a red halo and those which radiate ultraviolet appear with a blue halo.

As there may be the need for some energy transference (energy might be gained when pulling UV light 'down', and lost when pulling IR light 'up' to the visible spectrum) the glasses may require some additional electronics. The additional electronics would (of course) fit conveniently within the frame of the glasses.
-- phoenix, Sep 07 2001

Crystals Convert Light to More Useful Wavelengths https://scitechdail...better-solar-cells/
Crystal coatings convert light to wavelengths more useful to solar cells. [phoenix, Nov 30 2021]

Upconverting window
[xaviergisz, Nov 30 2021]

good... just so long as all the ordinary light isn't refracted...
-- RobertKidney, Sep 07 2001


wow this is a cool idea
-- xiaolongbao, Apr 24 2002


correct me if I'm wrong, but prisms do not alter the frequency of light, but merely separate out the component frequencies of composite beams. So prisms wouldn't work. However, you may be able to selectively absorb and re-emit photons after altering their energy. Then you could use the energy gained from the UV to boost the IR, and come out even, on average.

The difficulty (which seems to not be insurmountable) is that the emitting and absorbing surfaces need to be transparent to visible light.
-- 5tonsofflax, Apr 24 2002


The twenty year wait is over.
Nicely done.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 30 2021


The ability to see light pollution may crush Tv standards.
-- reensure, Nov 30 2021


Kudos, [phoenix]; [+]
-- pertinax, Nov 30 2021


When a crystal absorbs two photons in one frequency and reemits one photon at a higher frequency, it seems to me that the direction of the new photon would be unrelated to the direction of the first two. If so, the whole image would glow relative to the average temperature on both sides of the lens.
-- scad mientist, Nov 30 2021



random, halfbakery