The COTI (Clip-On Thermal Imager) adds the ability to see thermal signals to existing night-vision devices. Click to enlarge this image.
THE GIST
- Regular night-vision goggles are good, but not always good enough.
- The device gives a soldier sight in spite of smoke, foliage, fog, rain or other adverse conditions.
The COTI (Clip-On Thermal Imager) adds the ability to see thermal signals to existing night-vision devices.
Regular night-vision goggles are good, but not good enough. Sure, they let a soldier see at night as well as he would by day — but they don’t let him see any better. That just changed.
A new device developed over seven years by Optics1 gives warfighters “Predator”-style vision to better tag those terrorists and other threats. Only recently made available, the COTI (Clip On Thermal Imager) adds the ability to see thermal signals to existing night-vision devices.
The human eye sees light with a wavelength between 400 and 700 nanometers, while a night-vision device may see up to around 900, closing in on the infrared range. The COTI amps up the warfighter’s vision to a whole different spectrum — giving the soldier souped-up, super vision.
COTI’s long-wave infrared technology allows a warfighter to “see” even in pitch-black or no light conditions. By using an 8- through 10-micron range, it can give the user “sight” in spite of smoke, foliage, fog, rain and other adverse conditions where standard devices provide only limited capability.
While basic camouflage can defeat ordinary night-vision devices, it can’t fool the COTI’s ability to detect thermal sources. It can even identify whether a vehicle or a room has been recently occupied by “seeing” residual heat signatures. Arguably even cooler, it can spot hand- and footprints invisible to the naked eye. More
