New contact lenses give people infrared vision — even with their eyes shut. Sci-fi-style technology uses nanoparticles to convert infrared light into visible light that humans can see.

**These contact lenses give people infrared vision — even with their eyes shut**

**Sci-fi-style technology uses nanoparticles to convert infrared light into visible light that humans can see.**

Humans have a new way of seeing infrared light, without the need for clunky night-vision goggles. Researchers have made the first contact lenses to convey infrared vision — and the devices work even when people have their eyes closed.

The team behind the invention, led by scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, gave the lenses their power by infusing them with nanoparticles that convert near-infrared light in the 800–1,600-nanometre range into shorter-wavelength, visible light that humans can see, in the 400–700-nanometre range. The researchers estimate that the lenses cost around US$200 per pair to make.

Humans wearing the lenses could see flickering infrared light from an LED well enough to both pick up Morse code signals and sense which direction the signals were coming from. The lenses’ performance even improved when participants closed their eyes, because near-infrared light easily penetrates the eyelids, whereas visible light, which could have interfered with image formation, does so to a lesser degree.

For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00454-4

You can already see IR. Passive IR goggles for daytime use is one of the great home science projects.

https://www.instructables.com/Homemade-Infrared-Goggles!-For-Under-$10/