Once the original iPhone was opened up to third-party apps, it added an incredible amount of additional functionality to the device. But apps can only do so much, sometimes you also need to expand a smartphone’s hardware too. So like with the FLIR case that gave the iPhone Predator-like heat vision, the NVC promises to give the iPhone 6 the ability to see in complete darkness.
There are lots of apps that claim to give smartphones night vision, but they’re just using software tricks to boost what little light a phone’s camera sensor can gather. The NVC iPhone 6 and 6 Plus case instead brings its own 720P video camera that’s surrounded by a ring of eight infrared LEDs to illuminate objects up to 30 feet away, even when there’s no visible light available.
The NVC case connects to your iPhone via WiFi, and packs its own 2000mAh battery good for at least a couple of hours of use so as not to nuke your phone’s own battery. And because it’s self-powered with a microSD card slot for storage, the case can even be used as a standalone remote camera that streams what it’s seeing back to your handset.
The creators of the NVC are using Kickstarter to help raise the necessary funds to put the night-vision case into production, and for the time being you can pre-order with a donation of $US129. That gets you one of the first pre-production units as early as May of next year, but that’s assuming the development of the prototypes and hardware is completed on schedule, which is unfortunately rarely the case.
So while the production version will be priced closer to $US200, it might be worth waiting until the NVC is officially available before ordering one. Unless you have a desperate need for night vision on your phone, and refuse to just turn on its camera’s flash as a makeshift torch. [Kickstarter – NVC via Gizmag]