New night vision device for UK troops

Daily Mail:

British frontline troops will soon be able to see better in the dark using a revolutionary night sight modelled on the eyes of a tiny parasite.

The digital device, worn over one eye and attached to a helmet, will allow soldiers to spot an enemy out of the corner of their eyes without even moving their head.

The device has been developed from studies into the 50 raspberry-like eyes of the Xenos peckii insect – a tiny bug that lives inside the bodies of paper wasps.

The insect’s visual system – which is not found in any other living creature – creates an image from a mosaic of pixels similar to those on a digital camera, to give a wide field of vision.

And the new kit, which has nine lenses, will provide troops with 60 degrees of peripheral vision, twice the level of their current night-vision goggles.

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As well as having the potential to save lives, the device’s images will be linked through secure military networks to commanders who can watch and record their soldiers at work on a video screen.

The Xenos peckii parasite lives a short and secretive life. Females are sightless and never leave the wasp host whose body they inhabit. But the males, once mature, must leave to find a mate and they have just hours to complete the task before they die.

The males are guided to the general area of the females by sex pheremones and then to their specific location by their amazing eyesight.

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It sounds like they will be in big demand among voyeurs.

I think the fact is that the US and British troops already own the night. this sounds like it will enhance that ability. I saw a report on a conversation with a Russian officer who fought in Afghanistan who said they only owned the daylight hours when they were in Afghanistan. That has changed in this war.