New App Brings Advanced Realtime Night Vision to the iPhone

Maura · Jan 12, 2011

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMgiay3fzjo]YouTube - True NightVision for iPhone[/ame]

True NightVision is a new app from a British developer, Interealtime, that brings advanced realtime low-light video enhancement to your iPhone camera, without the use of any additional hardware. True NightVision 1.5 uses cutting-edge video technology to deliver low-light vision on iPhone 4 and 3GS, not just for photos but for HD live video on iPhone 4.

When it would normally be too dark for the iPhone camera to work properly, True NightVision will enhance the image using advanced light amplification technology. It works best in low light, such as a night with a full moon, but it wont work in very dark conditions, or when it's pitch black. The app also has a powerful digital zoon and a selection of colour filters for enhanced night-time viewing, as well as fun effects such as thermal imaging. Heres a run-down of some of the apps technical feature highlights courtesy of Interealtime:

Live, adjustable night vision enhancement. Enhance as much or as little as you want to get the picture just right
Smooth, fast, live fullscreen display. True NightVision runs at 25fps in normal mode! All enhancement and effects are 100% live
Powerful live zoom (4x on iPhone 3GS, 8x on iPhone 4)
Optional 4x amplification to boost the image even further
Fully iPhone 4/Retina optimised, and runs in HD (1280x720) resolution on iPhone 4
Super Mode (the S button). Super Mode significantly enhances picture quality and light levels, but runs at a slightly lower speed (10fps, still fast!)
Multiple live color modes: Full Color, Black and White, Red, Green and Blue filters
Negative mode. Sometimes produces better images, also makes a cool X-Ray effect
Built-in camera, captures exactly what you see on screen and saves automatically to your photo library (saves at 1280x720 on iPhone4, 640x480 on 3GS)
Built-in image viewer
Supports multitasking, even with other camera apps
Built-in binocular simulation
True NightVision works whichever way you hold your phone - landscape, portrait, even upside down

Click here to download the app for $0.99/£0.59: True NightVision for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPod touch (4th generation) on the iTunes App Store

Source: Interealtime

iGaz · Jan 12, 2011

After reading this I had to try it. After being very sceptical all I can say is WOW!

Before

After...

ITS ME DAVID · Jan 13, 2011

Just purchased it in full darkness it's lousy really grainy out with like outside lamps works great better then the original in the night even with the hdr feature on. But no video.

interealtime · Jan 13, 2011

Hi, I'm Chris, the guy that wrote this

gaz6076 said:
After reading this I had to try it. After being very sceptical all I can say is WOW!

Glad to hear you're happy with it, and nice comparison.

ITS ME DAVID said:
Just purchased it in full darkness it's lousy really grainy out with like outside lamps works great better then the original in the night even with the hdr feature on. But no video.

Yes, it won't work in complete darkness, and quality gets worse the darker it gets (this is true for all cameras unfortunately). It works best in low light. It also works in full daylight, enhancing has a similar effect to HDR, but with live preview.

Video: there is no video support in the app, by 'video' in the description I meant it works with live video from the camera rather than video recording. Sorry if there's any confusion over this - I've updated the app store description to clarify it.

iGaz · Jan 13, 2011

Once again great app. Not hat a chance to use it outside yet. Tried it through the livingroom window but it's pitch black in the back garden.

Hopefully in an update video is supported as the description was abit misleading, but the app is well worth the 59p as is...

*edit* Just left my review...

interealtime · Jan 14, 2011

gaz6076 said:
Once again great app. Not hat a chance to use it outside yet. Tried it through the livingroom window but it's pitch black in the back garden.

Hopefully in an update video is supported as the description was abit misleading, but the app is well worth the 59p as is...

*edit* Just left my review...

Video recording is "possible" (actually it already contains video recording code, it's just not activated) but getting video recording at decent speed is extremely difficult. This app is already pushing the iphone's hardware to quite near the limit. I'll investigate it a bit more though and see what can be done.

And thanks a lot for the review! Reviews are really important for us developers - a lot of people will search for apps like this and just pick the one that shows a rating, even if the rating is average or poor. And the app store doesn't show a rating at all until you get a certain number. So always rate the apps you like (and the ones you don't, as a warning!)

One thing though, would you mind removing the "thanks chris" from the review? It might look like a review I've paid for or something (and many developers are paying dodgy companies to do this unfortunately!)

Thanks

Chris

iGaz · Jan 14, 2011

No problem. Consider it done. Didnt think people would be sad enough to pay for reviews. Makes sense after some of the 5 star reviews I've seen for apps where just about every other review is one star!

Hopefully you can make video possible. Or what about enhancing images that have already been taken? I've tried to take a few quick pictures but it can take a while to get things just right. Would be good to play about with them afterwards...

interealtime · Jan 14, 2011

Yeah, you have to be wary of the reviews sometimes (particularly for the top list apps). A common one is for the app to launch (or get an update), then get lots of 5* reviews. A while later real people buy it and you see a ton of 1* reviews. What's worse is that some devs will trash competing products with lots of negative reviews. Apple need to sort this all out really, but it's hard. I'm sure they're working on it.

Image loading is certainly possible, I'll look into it at some point. It's important to keep the app 'clean' though - too many features can make the app worse rather than better. I'll see if or where it will fit in.

Chris

Bluering · Jan 15, 2011

Frankly, I wish I did not buy that, pure gimmick to me. I understand that it cannot work in complete darkness, but I thought you could at least get a decent image in an environment where your eyes can see things, well it is barely recognisable.

iGaz · Jan 15, 2011

Bluering said:
Frankly, I wish I did not buy that, pure gimmick to me. I understand that it cannot work in complete darkness, but I thought you could at least get a decent image in an environment where your eyes can see things, well it is barely recognisable.

What were you expecting? Have you ever seen a phone camera take pictures in the dark? When you can see stuff clearly in the dark phone cameras can't see a thing. Try find a proper camera that can take as good pictures as this app can in the same amout of light that you don't have to remortgage your house to buy. Have you not seen the comparison pictures I took? I could see my whole livingroom clearly but the iPhones camara couldnt see a thing. With this app it could. It's not perfect but it's in colour. It does more than proper night vision goggles can do...!

Bluering · Jan 15, 2011

gaz6076 said:
Bluering said:

Frankly, I wish I did not buy that, pure gimmick to me. I understand that it cannot work in complete darkness, but I thought you could at least get a decent image in an environment where your eyes can see things, well it is barely recognisable.

Click to expand...

What were you expecting? Have you ever seen a phone camera take pictures in the dark? When you can see stuff clearly in the dark phone cameras can't see a thing. Try find a proper camera that can take as good pictures as this app can in the same amout of light that you don't have to remortgage your house to buy. Have you not seen the comparison pictures I took? I could see my whole livingroom clearly but the iPhones camara couldnt see a thing. With this app it could. It's not perfect but it's in colour. It does more than proper night vision goggles can do...!