Raspberry Pi Night Vision Goggles Let You See at Night

I wear my Raspberry Pi at night

You don't have to be a secret agent to have wanted night vision goggles at some point. Maybe it's the limitations of being human that make us want to push our abilities beyond what nature allows — whatever the case, Diyode has created an awesome pair of night vision goggles using our favorite SBC, the Raspberry Pi, and we’re itching to make a pair for ourselves! The goggles feature a head-mounted display and allow the wearer to see clearly in dark or low-light environments.

As cool as night vision is on its own, the team went above and beyond by including a myriad of extra features. There are bonus sensors thrown into the mix that output additional data on the screen. Diyode also included a compass so you know which direction you’re facing, a temperature sensor, and even a gyroscope for orientation data. The headset displays information from these sensors in a cool overlay in real-time.

Instead of creating the housing from scratch, Diyode opted to use an existing VR headset designed for users to slip their phone into. This proved to be an easier and more affordable starting platform as it already had a head strap, lenses, and a base for the team to attach a screen to.

Powering the unit is a Raspberry Pi 4 B, but Diyode assures you could get away with using a Raspberry Pi 3 B+. It's still a little hard to get your hands on a Raspberry Pi right now, so being able to use what you have on hand is always a plus. In addition to the Pi, Diyode is using a Raspberry Pi 5MP Night Vision Camera Board connected to a 7-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1024 x 600px. The temperature, compass, and gyroscope sensors connect using I2C.

The software side took a bit of work, and, according to the team, required writing some custom code in C. If you want to recreate this Raspberry Pi project, your best bet is to check out the full build tutorial over at Diyode. It provides everything you need to get started from the hardware side to setting up the software. Be sure to follow Diyode for more awesome DIY projects and tutorials for makers.

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Ash Hill is a Freelance News and Features Writer at Tom's Hardware US. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting.

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