Mice and humans were able to detect infrared light, even with their eyes closed, with limited resolution.
  • Psythik@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Maybe it’s just my ADHD, but the article doesn’t seem to be clear on something: do these contacts actually allow you to see into near-infrared as it exists, or do they merely shift the light into a spectrum we can see, the way cameras do? I’m hoping for the former, but I doubt we have the tech to allow us to see new colors simply by putting on a pair of contacts.

    (Also, the mental image of scientists putting tiny little contact lenses on mice is hilarious to me.)

    • Bubs@lemm.eeEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      TL;DR from Wikipedia: In photon upconversion, two or more incident photons of relatively low energy are absorbed and converted into one emitted photon with higher energy.

      Basically photons are combined into a photon that is nearer in wavelength to visible light.

      • Psythik@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Aww that’s disappointing, but I’m not surprised. Otherwise we’d be using this tech to help colorblind people tell the difference between red and green.

    • bluemellophone@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      To counter the first theory, a contact cannot change the physical biology of the photon detecting cells (rods and cones) in the back of your eye. Nothing can, short of modifying your genetics.

      So you can either become part mantis shrimp, or shift the wavelengths into the spectrum your biology already can absorb and interpret.

        • hsdkfr734r@feddit.nlEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          Yes. Light receptors maybe, but eyes…

          source

          … and light-sensing organs called ocelli, which can sense the presence and absence of light. Additionally, some jellyfish have sensory structures called rhopalia, which contain receptors to detect light, chemicals and movement.

          Oh wait! This is unexpected:

          … One group of jellyfish, the cubozoan jellyfish, have complex eyes… with lenses, corneas and retinas in their rhopalia.

          Huh. Wiki agrees:

          box jellyfish are unique in the possession of true eyes, complete with retinas, corneas and lenses.[13] Their eyes are set in clusters at the ends of sensory structures called rhopalia

          Whoa.