Here's some advances in vision tech.
Infrared contact lenses allow people to see in the dark, even with their eyes closed
May 2025, phys.org
They use nanoparticles that absorb infrared light and convert it into visible wavelengths combined with flexible, nontoxic polymers used in standard soft contact lenses.Bonus - "We also found that when the subject closes their eyes, they're even better able to receive this flickering information, because near-infrared light penetrates the eyelid more effectively than visible light, so there is less interference from visible light."
via University of Science and Technology of China: Near-Infrared Spatiotemporal Color Vision in Humans Enabled by Upconversion Contact Lenses, Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.04.019
Brain-inspired vision sensor enhances object outline extraction in varying lighting conditions
Jun 2025, phys.org
The research team engineered a vision sensor that emulates the dopamine-glutamate signaling pathway found in brain synapses. In the human brain, dopamine modulates glutamate signals to prioritize critical information. Mimicking this process, the newly developed sensor selectively extracts high-contrast visual features, such as object outlines, while filtering out extraneous details.
via Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology and Korea Institute of Science and Technology: Jong Ik Kwon et al, In-sensor multilevel image adjustment for high-clarity contour extraction using adjustable synaptic phototransistors, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adt6527
Chain-of-Zoom framework enables extreme super-resolution zoom without retraining
Jun 2025, phys.org
This is the real CSI thing, or as they call it "extreme super-resolution"
For each step, the new framework uses a super-resolution (SR) model that already exists to begin the refinement process. As such processing is taking place, a vision-language-model (VLM) generates descriptive prompts that help the SR model conduct the generation process. The result is the generation of a zoomed-in part of the first image. The framework then repeats the process, using helpful cues from VLM, repeatedly, improving the resolution of the zoomed image each time, until settling on a final version. To ensure that the prompts given by the VLM were useful, the research team applied reinforcement-learning techniques. Testing of the framework showed it is capable of besting imagery generated by standard benchmarks.
Disclaimer - The researchers state that users need to be careful. The zoomed-in image is not real. For a better idea of what this means, check out the police department who used an AI-editing software for some photos of a drug bust, and the "edited" resulting photo had hallucinated a fake police badge and fake drugs [link to spammy website sorry, and the source article is on facebook].
via Korea Institute of Science and Technology: Bryan Sangwoo Kim et al, Chain-of-Zoom: Extreme Super-Resolution via Scale Autoregression and Preference Alignment, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2505.18600
Imaging tech promises deepest looks yet into living brain tissue at single-cell resolution
Aug 2025, phys.org
They're using sound in addition to light, and detecting NAD(P)H not calcium.
via Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT: Tatsuya Osaki et al, Multi-photon, label-free photoacoustic and optical imaging of NADH in brain cells, Light: Science & Applications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41377-025-01895-x
Ångström-scale optical microscopy deciphers conformational states of single membrane proteins
Aug 2025, phys.org
(Ångström is as far down as it goes btw) Scientists show that optical microscopy under cryogenic conditions can resolve specific sites within the mechanosensitive protein PIEZO1 with Ångström precision – even within native cell membranes."The key innovation was rapid freezing in a liquid cryogen—a process so fast that water molecules don't crystallize, thus keeping the protein's structure intact"
via Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light: Hisham Mazal et al, Cryo–light microscopy with angstrom precision deciphers structural conformations of PIEZO1 in its native state, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adw4402
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