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Jakks, the toy company who introduced the terrific "Eyeclops" magnifying toy have released another mad contraption - night vision goggles!

The goggles are basically a head-mounted video camera feeding an image onto a tiny screen in front of one eye.

The video camera is very sensitive, so it can pick up infrared (IR) light. Infrared light is pretty scarce at night, so the goggles are loaded with IR light-emitting diodes (LEDs), pointing at whatever direction you are viewing, like a head-mounted flashlight which only emits light which is invisible to the naked eye.

The goggles are all black and very comfortable to wear. The rubber straps all adjust and seem very durable. The gasket which fits around your eyes is soft rubber.

The goggles contain two seperate arrays of infrared lights, a circle of 10 around the camera at the top, and a cluster of seven in front of one eye.

• Cluster of Seven: Only emit invisible IR light. If you want to stalk around in complete darkness, these are the bulbs which will be lit. These probably emit light with a 940nm wavelength. Some sources call this a "complete lack of emission in the visible range".
  
  
• Circle of Ten: Emit invisible and visible light. They are recessed in their housings, colored red but not at all vibrant, visually. The photo here shows them looking pink, but that is because of the limitations of (or rather extended image capability of) my camera. They probably emit light with a 880nm wavelength.

A knob at the temple switches between two arrays of bulbs, allowing the wearer to choose between low powered & completely invisible vs. high power & visible.

To further illustrate, pictures.

Here is a picture of me creeping through the living room with the goggles on the "low" setting.

..except my regular Canon SD790 camera can easily detect the infrared LEDs.

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Here is what the low setting looks like to the naked eye.

You should get some clothes on because I can see everything.

Here is a picture of me skulking around with the goggles on the "high" setting. The camera shows a bright ring of LEDs on my head, but visually they are much dimmer, like a glowing heater coil within a hair dryer.

The inside of the goggles reveal why this is a $90 toy and not $1,200 tactical equipment. The image display is little, and there is only one of them.

I guess these were designed for "see like a pirate day".

The display screen is about the size of the CTRL key on a keyboard.

Luckily, that tiny display gets the job done because it is positioned about an inch away from your eyeball.

When you are wearing the goggles, the image fills about 1/15th of your field of view for that one eye... sort of like viewing a 17" laptop screen from four feet away. That makes it a little tough to navigate in complete darkness.

Of course, if it is really dark, I'd much rather have these night vision goggles than not have them. Better 1/15th than 0/15th.

By holding my camera very close to the display, I was able to take a few photos of what kind of images you can expect to see while wearing the Eyeclops goggles.

The photos below were taken through the night vision goggles, in almost complete darkness.

Here is a mixer.

Of course, everything looks a little more sinister when you spot it in the infrared. This might be for mixing yellow cake.

Wheels of a jogging stroller. Possibly for moving contraband.

Here we have a bowl of fruit. If these are lemons, the juice can really sting your eyes.

Almost everyone looks scary when you see them in night vision. The bottomless eyeball look is even creepier than red eye. This guy looks like an undercover agent of some kind. Possibly MI-5.

In the background there is a photo frame emitting a bit of light.

Chairs and their reflections. This table might be used to support attack plans.

Bookshelf.

Probably packed with radical teachings.

Some fine china.

Probably not safe to put these in the dishwasher.

In movies, infrared goggles pick up heat signatures from hidden people and vehicles.

The Eyeclops goggles couldn't detect slight temperture changes. In this photo you can see that a warm burner on an electric rangetop doesn't look any different than a cold one.

But eventually the heat starts to make an impression on the goggles. At 320 degrees, I can see a lot of IR light coming off of it. At this temperature a burner remains black to the naked eye.

I don't belong to any paintball clubs, and I don't know how to sew a dress, so you might wonder how I plan to use night vision goggles.

I'll tell you. Night chores! Forget waking up Saturday morning to mow in the blazing hot sun. Now I can get all my yardwork done in the dead of night!

Now I'll never wake Stacy with a glaring book light!

You know you aren't supposed to wash your car in the sunlight. Problem solved!

The Eyeclops night vision goggles are pretty cool, allowing an amazing view, even in complete darkness. You must admit, $90 is pretty cheap for a super power.