Why buy night vision devices when you can see in the dark with  your own eyeballs? In what looks like a promising experiment done by Science for the Masses, a group of people in research, the health care industry, and technical design who do "citizens science" independent of companies, educational, research, and government institutions (some call them "Biohackers"), they were able to conduct an experiment in making the human eye see in the dark.

Based on previous research, Gabriel Licina and Jeffrey Tibbetts, looked into Chlorine e6 or Ce6 which is a chlorophyll analog that is in fish found in the deep sea (where it's totally dark). Also used in cancer treatment, it is also being used in the improvement in the dim light vision of adults by injecting it in the conjuctival sac of the eye. Their research paper mentions a patent application in which a mixture can be made and when applied to the eye retina, can improve vision in low light condition. It is a mixture of Ce6 and Insulin in saline.

Based on this research, the research team created a mixture as this entry in their research paper which bears the title "A Review on Night Enhancement Eyedrops Using Chlorin e6" shows:

The Ce6 (Frontier Scientific, CAS: 19660-77-6 ), was found to be a fine black powder which clung to all surfaces. To make manipulating the chemical easier, a large batch of the total solution was made and then aliqouted into separate containers for storage.

200mg of Ce6 was mixed with 400 units (4ml) of insulin (70/30 Lantus). To this was added 5.38ml of sterile saline solution (0.9% sodium chloride). The mixture was sonicated briefly (30 seconds) to allow for proper dispersal of the powder into saturated solution and then 625μl of DMSO (Amresco) was added. The solution was sealed with parafilm and sonicated for 150 seconds. The resulting liquid was thin and black in color. Solution was kept in glass aliqouts wrapped in foil at 20°C.

With Licina acting as the guinea pig, speculum was put into his eyes before the mixture is applied. This prevents his eyes from blinking so that the mixture drops get absorbed by the eye rather than pushed out when his eyelids instinctively close to prevent foreign objects from hitting the eye. The drops were applied using a micropipette so they can be applied more precisely. Protective lenses were then put on to block out some of the light. Light intensity will increases as the solution starts to work over two hours that Licina also had to put on sunglasses as well.

(Gabriel Licina. Photo source Science for the Masses)

After two hours, Licina and 4 controls who did not have the Ce6 mixture applied were then brought to a darkened area where there were three forms of testing were performed: 1) symbol recognition at a distance; 2) symbol recognition in different backgrounds at a static distance; and 3) identifying moving objects at different distances and background. Distances ranged from 25 to 50 metres.

In all these tests Licina was able to recognise symbols and objects at 100% accuracy. The control group which is not treated with the Ce6 mixture were only 33% accurate.

Suffice to say that the mixture works, but there's a long way to go before such solution can be applied for long term use, especially for people who do work at night. This means that the military will be interested in looking further into the research of Licina and Tibetts, and checking on previous work conducted by other institutions, DARPA included.

(160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Photo source: Southcom.mil)

Now, what would you think of the finished product if the research is further pursued? My take is that it won't be an "eye drops" solution which follows the procedure vision capability since the effects take longer to take effect and much longer for the effects to wear off that it becomes inconvenient to use it regularly. This is more of a lens (eyeglass or contact lens) solution which can be readily worn and taken off.  But that's just me speculating. Still, if such night vision capability becomes more accessible and affordable, humans can now fully claim that they own the night as well.

For airsoft players, that will mean more fun night games.