“Surpassing the Evolutionary Boundaries of Biological Photoreception”: Scientists Invent Eyeglasses That Let Wearers See the Infrared in Full Color

The Debrief ^ | 08/06/2026 | Christopher Plain

[BenLurkin]

colloidal quantum dot (CQD)-based infrared-to-visible upconverter... including “ocular injectable photoreceptor-binding upconversion nanoparticles”

[cymbeline]

AR (augmented reality), AI (artificial intelligence) - where we be headed?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“ocular injectable photoreceptor-binding upconversion nanoparticles” — You first, Ben. Report back to us on what you see.

[GingisK]

...they observe that our natural visual-light spectrum vision is “utterly inadequate” to access this information that so many animals rely upon.

That is why we go further than the animals by inventing all sorts of sensor systems.

[Pontiac]

AR (augmented reality), AI (artificial intelligence) - where we be headed?

As always

Into the Great Unknown.

[zeebee]

Good demonstration of infrared vs. visible light here:

https://mhmyers.com/ir/gsir/gsir.html

[cgbg]

My translation from that bizarre blizzard of babble was “stuff that lets you see more”.

Lol.

[Merrick]

Umm... false color.

[ek_hornbeck]

Having UV vision would be interesting as well. Many insects and birds have UV vision, so to a bee or a hummingbird many flowers that look solid white to us have colorful spots and bands to mark their “target”.

[Pontiac]

“ocular injectable photoreceptor-binding upconversion nanoparticles”

Nope

I see no need to permanently alter the body God gave me to see infrared light.

I also can only see this as altering the way I see visible colors to enable me to see infrared.

I am unwilling to give up some colors to gain others.

[PAR35]

Were these the sunglasses featured in the movie “They Live”?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjw_DuNkOUw&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqqTGIrYIiKQ1u_KKbuyLIi2&index=2

[libertylover]

AR (augmented reality), AI (artificial intelligence) - where we be headed?

La la land it looks like.

[aquila48]

More like arbitrary color. We arbitrarily assign certain infrared frequencies visible light frequencies that correspond to red green or blue to make them visible.

[bigbob]

Built-in night vision would be a game-changer.

[ek_hornbeck]

AR (augmented reality), AI (artificial intelligence) - where we be headed?

I'd say we're headed for a rehash of the early 2000s dot com bubble, though on a larger scale with data centers, AI, and especially cryptocurrency. Once the hype dies down people will realize that they've been barking up the wrong tree. And as far as I can tell, augmented reality is just an amusing plaything.

[Leaning Right]

I tried wearing those IR glasses once. Trust me. You don’t want to see what I saw.

[PGR88]

[GingisK]

So would built-in 20mm cannons.

[DannyTN]

Does it has a quantum price?

It’s either very expensive or free. But you don’t know until you buy it.