Project Background, Where the System is Now

The night vision goggle system (Left) and the drone camera (right)

Project Background

Hi all, and welcome again! I thought I’d kick things off with a post about where this project came from, and where the system is currently at in its development.

Before becoming an industrial designer, I worked in conservation. In Australia, much of our endangered wildlife is nocturnal, and studying or conserving these species has always been a challenge for researchers.

The original goal of this project was to develop a cheap, effective, and adaptable night vision device, something that could be used by volunteers and researchers to better observe and understand nocturnal wildlife behavior.

This meant diving deep into how night vision technology is actually used in the field, and how the design of a device could be optimized to meet those real-world needs.

Through this research, thermal fusion imaging quickly emerged as the most effective tool for locating and identifying wildlife. However, existing thermal fusion systems are incredibly expensive, putting them well out of reach for most users.

This project aimed to bridge that gap — leveraging the lower cost of digital night vision systems while integrating the benefits of thermal fusion imaging. The result was the creation of a digital thermal fusion system.

Where the System is Now

The night vision goggle system, Tripod Mounted

In its current iteration, the system runs at 800x600px resolution at 30FPS. It’s a biocular format device, similar to a PVS-7. The sensors used in this prototype are a 256x192 thermal core, and a Sony Starlight low light sensor. For the intended use case, stationary wildlife observation, this setup is ideal.

While biocular night vision goggles like the PVS-7 aren’t perfect for moving around or navigating terrain, they offer a more natural viewing experience when observing from a fixed position. Importantly, this design choice also avoids the need for a second camera sensor, helping keep costs down.

The system is helmet-mounted, allowing for easy motion tracking, but it can also be used handheld or mounted on a tripod depending on the situation.

In addition to the wildlife observation device, this project also saw the development of a thermal fusion drone camera system — which will continue to evolve alongside the main device.

While developing this device for nocturnal wildlife observation was the material focus of the project, the process itself resulted in a 500-page thesis, covering everything from camera sensor testing through to hardware design and system optimization.

What’s Next

Rabbit detected through the system, at around 200M

With the initial research phase complete and a working prototype developed, the next stage of the project will focus on turning this system into a commercially available product.

Now that the background is out of the way, stay tuned for my next post, where I’ll be diving deeper into the system’s features, development roadmap, and where I see the device heading in future iterations.

Looking forward to updating you all!