Crave

Sheepishly preparing to hunt innocent virtual deer.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Toys just aren't the same as when I was young, when a Rubik's Cube and a Greedo action figure were enough to get me through a Sunday. Jakks Pacific, makers of many a plug-and-play retro-gaming peripheral and children's toy, has some new wrinkles up its sleeve for the holidays, and we got a chance to get our hands on some of the new stuff in the CNET office.

On the more controversial side, Jakks' new product in their direct-to-TV plug-and-play games line is a low-cost all-in-one version of Big Buck Hunter Pro. In case you've been away from bars for a while, the popular arcade game is a rifle-shooter light-gun game involving hunting for deer. This home edition, unlike PC and console games before it, consists just of the plastic shotgun--which has the game software built-in--and a wireless IR bar that sits atop the TV like the Wii's sensor bar. But is this something you'd want in your home?... Read more

Flying your Bell Ranger in a ball cap is something of a fashion statement. But it lacks that iconic, ant-head panache that until recently only military pilots wearing restricted, government-use-only night vision-equipped helmets could pull off.

(Credit: Nivisys)

The NVAG-6 Night Vision Goggles change all that. They're the first night vision goggle certified by the FAA for civilian use, according to manufacturer Nivisys. Of course, looks are not what will sell this gear. It's the safety margin they can potentially add to low-light and nighttime flying (PDF).

"This is a historical moment for civil aviator night vision safety. Nivisys is now the first and only company certified for the production of night vision goggles under FAA TSO-C164," said Nivisys CEO Allen Harding.

The unit can be used with fixed and rotary winged aircraft, according to the company. You'll probably want one just to avoiding doing a "Bill Graham," but the company foresees wide use in many after-dark flight operations, such as offshore oil rigging, logging, power line and high-rise work, and search and rescue.

The NVAG-6 comprises a lightweight binocular made of anodized aluminum that can be mounted to a variety of helmets. The 25mm eye relief eyepieces are individually adjustable and even work for operators wearing prescription glasses or contacts. A flip-up base allows for fine tuning for fore/aft adjustments.

The goggles automatically turn off when the helmet mount is flipped up, which prevents tube damage in case of exposure to bright lights. They run on AAs, which are presumably not included.

(Credit: Spycatcher)

Even for the most effective night-vision goggles, there's always been one problem: It's difficult to be discreet while looking like "Buffalo Bill" from Silence of the Lambs.

But there may a more discreet way to carry out surreptitious missions with the "Infrar-Red Personal Night Viewer," which provides nocturnal vision on a 3.5-inch screen built into a handheld device. Better still, as OhGizmo notes, the 500-line-resolution display comes through in black and white, rather than that creepy green glow.

EyeClops Night Vision, for adorable little black ops

(Credit: Jakks Pacific)

When a kid's toy claims to offer "night vision," it usually means some red- or green-colored lights to actually illuminate the darkness. Real night-vision devices, on the other hand, use an electronic imager to let user navigate in total darkness with an infrared light that's completely invisible to the naked eye. They also cost several hundred dollars, and are not for kids.

Jakks Pacific has decided to bridge the gap between light-up toy and half-grand military technology with the EyeClops Night Vision. It's a functional night-vision device that uses an infrared imager and LCD monocle to let kids navigate around in complete darkness. The company claims its built-in IR LEDs let the goggles see up to 20 feet in completely dark environments. While Jakks Pacific didn't have a final version available at Toy Fair, it did offer a prototype demonstration of the mechanism that indeed made a nearly pitch-black room navigable.

The company also revealed the EyeClops BioniCam, a digital-camera-equipped version of the EyeClops digital microscope. Like the original EyeClops, the BioniCam can magnify objects by 100x, 200x, or 400x and display those objects on a television. This new model adds its own LCD screen, so you don't need to plug it into anything to see things close-up. It can also record pictures and video of your subjects to an included USB memory key, so you can upload them to your computer and share them online. The EyeClops Night Vision and BioniCam are both scheduled to ship in fall 2008, and will retail for about $80 each.

Image taken of a hotel from a distance in heavy haze sans SWIR (left) and with SWIR.

(Credit: SUI)

The next generation in night vision for the U.S. military may be something that is already a commercial success in such applications as noninvasive medical examinations and silicon wafer inspection.

DARPA is betting on an indium gallium arsenide crystal and shortwave infrared (SWIR) sensor technology developed by Sensors Unlimited (SUI) that works in a wavelength somewhere between the visible and thermal bands. SUI, a subsidiary of Goodrich, has signed a three-year contract with DARPA to develop prototypes of lightweight helmet- and vehicle-mounted cameras based on SWIR technology.

(Credit: SUI)

Incorporating advanced materials and circuitry, the cameras detect reflected light at wavelengths invisible both to the human eye and current night-vision technology. The cameras with a resolution of 640x512 pixels will weigh less than 10 grams, or 0.35 ounces, light enough to use on hand-launched unmanned air vehicles and other small conveyances. There are other cameras operating on SWIR wavelengths that are made of different materials, but they need to be mechanically cooled--and that adds weight.

SWIR cameras operate in starlight conditions, relying on illumination from "atmospheric night glow," a phenomenon created by hydroxyl ion emissions in the shortwave infrared portion of the spectrum, according to SUI. (Night sky radiance emits five to seven times more illumination than starlight.)

But it really pays off in target recognition. "Humans are very recognizable, with the typical difference being that all hair shows as white due to the lack of moisture in hair," the company says. "Conversely, skin shows darker, due to its high moisture content."

(Credit: Gadget Venue)

There are several powerful LED systems to improve road vision in cars, and just as many for bicycles to be seen by them. But with so many night-vision solutions apparently in search of a problem, there must be a way to make the technology widely available for safer driving after dark.

Digital imaging company Flir Systems, which specializes in infrared photography, has taken a step toward that goal with a deal to install its "PathFindIR" thermal imaging technology in BMWs, according to Gadget Venue. The system improves illumination and detects heat (as in warm bodies) as well, displaying the images on a dashboard-mounted LCD.

It's not perfect, of course--it requires the driver to divert his eyes briefly from the road, for instance--and at $4,425 it costs as much as an entire used car. But if the technology can eventually be built into the windshield, we think it would be well worth the price.

(Credit: iKey)

It's such a common problem: There you are, wearing your best pair of night-vision goggles, and you can't see the damn keyboard. What's a clandestine operative to do?

iKey claims to have the answer with a LED keyboard that it says is "compatible with NV goggles, featuring filters that remove unwanted light interference" such as halo glows, according to Ubergizmo. It's kind of a version of Stacco Switch's rugged M779 that provides the necessary discretion you won't get with an LED piano lamp. Unfortunately for amateur spies, it seems to be aimed at military agencies and therefore will likely be well beyond the usual budget. Which is too bad because it certainly beats a lot of the nocturnal alternatives.

When I served in the U.S. Army back in the waning days of the Cold War, about the only battery-operated equipment I needed to worry about taking into the field was the standard-issue L-shaped flashlight, the one with the red lens we needed to swap in to reduce the risk of (a) night blindness and (b) giving away our position to the bad guys.

These soldiers are part of a combat team evaluating Future Combat Systems gear in an exercise in February at Fort Bliss, Texas.

(Credit: Maj. Deanna Bague/U.S. Army)

Things are a lot different now. While the Army is still a long ways off from its Land Warrior, Future Combat Systems and related "every soldier a sensor" goals, today's GIs pack a lot of electronic gear, from GPS receivers to night vision goggles. (An article in the July/August issue of Foreign Policy reports that in a five-day mission the average U.S. soldier goes through 88 AA batteries.)

With demands like those in mind, the Department of Defense last week announced a "wearable power" competition. The objective: a prototype system that can power a standard soldier's equipment for 96 hours. It also has to pack less than half the weight of the current batteries carried--all of the components, including the power generator, electrical storage, control electronics, connectors and fuel, must weigh 4 kilograms or less, the Defense Department says.

A competition is scheduled for the fall of 2008. At that time, the top three competitors will have to demonstrate the use of a complete, wearable system that produces an average of 20 watts of power for the four-day period, under realistic conditions.

How badly does the Pentagon want to find a solution to the problem? The winner will get a $1 million prize, and the second- and third-places finishers will get $500,000 and $250,000, respectively.

Potential entrants will be briefed on the rules and the technical details at a public forum in September of this year in the Washington, D.C., area. Registration for the prize program must be completed by November 30, 2007.

Night-vision goggles: 100 percent more effective at catching pirates than X-Ray Specs.

(Credit: Fakecrap.com)

You'd think catching movie pirates would be as easy as preventing anyone with a camcorder from entering a movie theater. Or throwing a net over Johnny Depp's house.

Instead, Malaysian theater workers are employing a high-tech strategy. According to a Reuters report, the Motion Picture Association is training Malaysian theater workers to strap on night-vision goggles to catch pirates in the act of filming.

And it's working. In the past two months, 17 illegal movie-tapers have been caught by begoggled Malaysian ushers.

Could New York City be the next test bed for the night-vision goggle probe? According to a Motion Picture Association of America study, New York accounts for 43 percent of all in-theater movie piracy in the U.S., as well as 20 percent of worldwide DVD piracy.