ITT Night Vision: TREXPO East

I must admit that I mention ITT solely on the basis that I was simply blown away by the technology during a demonstration inside their their demonstration trailer(at TREXPO East), rather than their products being anything “new”. The only really new thing about ITT’s products is their most advanced intensifier tube, called “The Pinnacle”, that now goes beyond Gen III+. I would call it “Generation IV”, or “GEN IV”, however Kevin Kellas, ITT’s Law Enforcement Training Manager, advised me that “Gen IV” is not the proper nomenclature for this new level of performance. According to ITT, “The Pinnacle” tube provides significantly higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), shock resistance, and end-of-life (EOL) requirements for SNR and gain, as well as dramatically reduced halo, as compared to GEN III tubes.”

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Anyway, this new level tube is restricted to law enforcement and military, and is what I got to experience in the demo, which consisted of the ITT company representative turning the lights what looked like to be completely out, and me holding their new “Pinnacle” monocle up to my left eye and being able to see everyone and everything in the room with amazing brightness and clarity, including a human-like dummy in the corner. The reason I chose a monocle, as opposed to a binocular goggle, is that monocular vision is now the choice of elite military special operations and law enforcement tactical teams, since the monocle leaves one eye free to deal with sudden illumination, and to naturally adapt to the darkness. Also, when using one eye, after a while, the brain compensates and makes the night vision-enhanced image look more binocular. However, for those that prefer a binocular tube, ITT does make one at the new level.

Getting back to the demonstration, only when the lights, which were on a very sensitive reostat, went down to the point where they were ba-a-arely on, did the image start fuzzing a little bit(think of light static on your t.v. set). When Kevin employed an infrared illumanator(IR flashlight), the view through the monocle looked like someone was illuminating the inside of the trailer with a pair of car headlights. However, when I took the monocle away from my eye, the room was completely black, and seemingly devoid of any light whatsoever. I know it sounds a little dumb, but this just plain impressed the hell out of me, and made me want to start saving my pennies so I can purchase one of these high-tech babies as soon as possible.

Click here to visit ITT’s website and learn more about their products.