zero_'s Full Review: JAKKS Pacific Eyeclops Night Vision
I've been watching the steady march of digital night vision technology for a couple of years now. The premise is simple enough, and these days is nearly 100% the same as today's now-ubiquitous night vision capable security cameras. Just smaller, and powered by batteries.
It was actually several years ago that I investigated with interest a product called the TekGear Spectre: A fantastically expensive head mounted digital night vision aparatus aimed squarely at the police, rescue, and security markets. I saw this, and I smirked, and I said to myself, "Give it three years, and someone will come along to take this technology and make a toy out of it."
And that toy is the Eyeclops Night Vision Goggles set (though nobody, including the manufacturer, can quite seem to agree on what its full name is). You may be familiar with those kids' toy "night vision" sets that are just a green tinted flashlight attached to a pair of plastic glasses, or various other tomfoolery. I'm tickled pink to insist that this is (these are?), verily, an actual factual working set of digital night vision goggles at a toy price.
And the toy price is one of the more interesting parts of the bargain, if you ask me. The people with children -- or just those who are children at heart, like me -- probably already know if they'd be interested in a pair of these. I'm not entirely certain of Epinions' rationale on listing the goggles as "no longer available" because my local Wal Mart among other places are prominently stocking them, and since the holiday season the retail price has been dropping like a rock. Once around a hundred, then around 80, then around 75, now hovering around 70 dollars and oftentimes less when found online.
The remaining question, then, is not "Do the they work?" but "How well do they work?" And the answer to that is a bit of a mixed bag.
The Eyeclops goggle consists of a single relatively high sensitivity CCD camera of no particular merit, same as is found on umpteen miniature security cameras these days. Notably it has no infrared filter like the sensor on your fancy point-and-shoot digital camera; This gives it poor color performance (especially when there's sunlight involved) but allows it to see near-infrared light that's normally invisible to the human eye. And with this, the camera can be used to see in the dark.
The camera is attached to a small color viewfinder exactly like the one you'd find in an older camcorder. There's only one viewfinder and it only projects its image to the right eye. This is a bit annoying by itself, but it also lacks focus and diopeter adjustment and it's perfectly possible for someone with even relatively minor vision problems (or glasses) to find the Eyeclops goggles impossible to use.
The electronics are housed in a bulbous plastic thing meant to resemble, very superficially, a pair of futuristic military NVG's. If you ask me the plastic housing could be a lot less bulky. There's obviously a lot of empty space in there that could be left out for a sleeker, less ridiculous design. On the flip side, the part of the goggles that interface with your face (for lack of a better description) are clearly child sized. Despite being bulky, the goggles are very small and do not fit well to adult faces. Since there is no focus adjustment on the viewfinder its focus is primarly dependent on how far away it sits from your eye, and if you have a poor face-to-goggle fit you'll probably find the viewfinder too far away and out of focus. There is no adjustment for this, so you either have to modify the rubber gasket around the edge of the goggles or just live with it.
The goggles themselves are worn via a set of rubber straps that are adjustable and, fortunately, quite generous. The whole thing is powered by four AA batteries that go in a box around the back of the head strap, just like a 'real' pair of NVG's.
There is also, for some unfathomable reason, a little switch under the right eyepiece that toggles the viewfinder between color and a mode where it turns everything green. There's no discernible advantage to this, since the goggles don't see any better or worse in the dark in either mode.
The real performance factor of the goggles isn't quite the camera or the viewfinder but its built in illuminators, upon which they rely completely to see in the dark. The goggles' CCD camera provides much lower actual light amplification than oldschool (but expensive) tube based night vision equipment. While tube based NVG's can amplify existing but very dim light into a viewable image, the Eyeclops goggles have to bring their own illumation to the party and do so via two sets of illuminators: A high powered one that is almost invisible to the naked eye, and a low powered one that is well and truly invisible to the naked eye. The illumination modes are selectable by a little knob on the goggles, and as long as they're powered on you have to use one or the other.
First up is the high powered illuminator, made up of a ring of near-infrared LED's flanking the camera lens. They throw a lot of IR but also light up with a very dull red glow that's visible if you're looking straight at them, an effect familiar to anyone who has ever stood under a security camera in the dark. This mode is often too much illumination for use indoors, especially in houses with white walls, and produces an overexposed image. It's perfect for outdoors, though, and as an added bonus the LED's throw enough IR light to make animals' eyes light up in the dark from quite a distance away.
The second mode uses a cluster of LED's nearly identical to those used in TV remotes, which are lower powered but cast light that is well and truly invisible to the human eye. Unless maybe you're Spiderman or something. This is the preferred mode for use indoors. This mode doesn't illuminate out as far as the other, but it has the added advantage of making your goggles truly undetectable except to anyone else using night vision equipment.
It's also worth mentioning that while the packaging describes the goggles as "infrared," they detect only near-IR light and do not sense heat. Think less like the Predator, more like Sam Fisher. (You can, however, look through them to see the end of your TV remote light up. Or even use the remote as as small flashlight that only the goggles can detect.)
Jakks quotes an effective range of 50 feet for the goggles in total darkness, which actually a good estimate. In ideal conditions you could see a bit farther with the larger of the two illuminators, and as mentioned you can make animal eyes (and other reflective surfaces) light up through the goggles from hundreds of feet away.
So they do actually work, and for the price it's approximately the coolest thing ever.
There are a couple of caveats. To begin with, the goggles have a truly miserable field of view. My estimate puts it at about eleven degrees. This makes the goggles very, very difficult to use while walking around, especially outside or on unfamiliar footing. And potentially dangerous, if there's anything to trip over or fall off of. I would recommend against letting children use the goggles to run around outside in the dark, for instance, because you can use them to look at your feet or to look straight ahead, but not both at the same time. Perhipheral vision is also reduced to exactly zero. Because there is only one camera and one viewfinder you also only get monocular vision, which means no depth perception. Humans are pretty good at figuring out the relative distances of objects they already know the size of even withonly one eye (ask my roommate, who is completely blind in one eye but still drives better than 99% of the people on the road), but that technique doesn't work so well with blank interior walls.
To help with this there's actually a little hatch over where your left eye goes, which you can open up to see outside. This is useful not only for noodling around in bright areas while wearing the goggles, but also for not tripping over stuff if you're not in total darkness.
There's also no focus adjustment on the camera. This is sort of a mixed blessing, because with no adjustment there's nothing to go out of adjustment. But it also means the lens is permanently fixed to be focused in about fifteen feet away, and objects farther and especially nearer to that are always a little out of focus. It doesn't help that the image goes fuzzy whenever it's overexposed, which happens frequently with things that are very close to the illuminators. While it'd be awesome to be able to read a book under the covers without a flashlight, you won't be able to with these.
The upshot of all of this is that the goggles are probably best suited to stationary duty. They're alright for playing around inside as long as you have a feel where all the furniture is, but they're much better for sitting out on the back porch and watching night wildlife. Or possibly hiding up a tree with your Nerf gun. Not so much sneaking around in the woods where there are things to trip over.
You can't escape the fact that these things are damn cool no matter how you slice it, though. I'm sure they fit firmly into the category of gifts that will make you the Coolest Parent Ever (or Coolest Uncle Ever, if you're in my shoes) and can do so at considerably less cost than buying your kid, say, an iPod. Or one of those idiotic pocket-bikes. Of course, they're also a nifty toy for those of us who should have grown up a decade ago ourselves, and probably also a great source of parts for the hardware hackers in the audience who would love to bust that night vision camera out of its plastic housing and build it into something else.
Heck, I've got a pair, and even despite their toylike shortcomings I love them. With all the caveats in mind, these are highly recommended from me.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 69.00 Type of Toy: Science and Nature
Age Range of Child: Kids to Teens
Eyeclops night vision provides kids young and old with an authentic night vision experience like never before Powered by actual infra-red driven night...More at Amazon Marketplace
Eyeclops night vision provides kids young and old with an authentic night vision experience like never before Powered by actual infra-red driven night...More at Amazon Marketplace
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