infrared contact lenses

Blue Lenses

I am frequently asked if it would be possible to develop a luminous system with blue glasses for blue-backed cards. The answer is, yes and no! Or better say, no and yes! No, the system would not function like a blue version of the red luminous readers, but yes, it is possible to make a luminous system with blue lenses.infrared marked cards

The blue luminous system would not function exactly like the red system. In other words, one could not hope to place large letters and numbers across the backs of the cards and use the blue lenses to cancel-out blue back designs, like red backs are cancelled-out with red glasses so that all that's left to see would be the luminous marks. In theory, to accomplish that, one would need such dark blue lenses that the whole image would become too dark under normal lighting conditions. In effect, one could hardly see anything through such dark blue lenses without lighting up the card table like a Hollywood film set. Hardly a common practice when the boys get together to play cards.

However, a blue system can be made to work and it is hardly a new invention. I was able to find the first mention of a blue system dating back to 1909, but for some reason it is less known than the red system and almost not talked about. First of all, a blue-lens system may work best with white-border cards. The luminous marks can be painted right on the white edges of the cards either as lines, dots, shaded corners, etc. In theory one could paint over the entire width of the white borders, but a more subtle code would just use thin lines right on the extreme edges of the cards, or on the edges of the printed areas. The rest is self explanatory. Once again, to get desired results one must use a specific blue and a specific luminous ink and even then one should not expect the work to light up like "neon signs". In fact, the work will look much fainter than the marks for the red system.

The system with blue lenses does not actually require the use of blue-backed cards. Once again, the function of the blue filters is not to cancel out the blue-colored back design in order to to reveal hidden marks. In this case the blue lenses are only used to enhance the luminous ink over the white areas. In fact, someone with a sharp eye could use red Bee cards and paint the luminous marks inside some of the white diamonds, instead of painting the borders of white-border cards. If you saw a guy with blue glasses while red cards were in use, would you ever suspect luminous readers?

The marking code described above for the blue system would also work with a red-lens system and blue cards. That may be a better option altogether because the marks would be more subtle and people would be less likely to suspect luminous marks if blue cards were in use. In this case the red glasses would no longer serve as filters to cancel out the red backs, but rather just to enhance the luminous marks; also the ink could be put-on much lighter because the luminous marks would not be overshadowed by a back design. Would a luminous system then work with other colors? Possibly, yes. But any luminous system would probably always have to be limited to over saturated vibrant primary colors.

Black Predators

The most advanced luminous system to date consists of a pair of lenses that appear black to the casual observer. This system is sold under the brand name Black Predators™, which is a name I had come up with myself.

The ink is different from the ink used in the conventional red-lens system, and the technology that makes this system work is also different. Even the most advanced conventional red-lens system works on the principle of color blocking. This is not the case with this system. infrared contact lenses

If you try wearing the Black Predators™ on a sunny day you will discover that some colors look totally different, and some of the colors even fluoresce, when viewed through the lenses, almost as if they were illuminated with a black light at a nightclub. This phenomenon is the exact principle behind the technology that makes this system work. The lenses are capable of shifting the wavelength of light, and when the wavelength shifts, the amplitude of the waves also changes, to compensate for the shift. This is why some of the colors fluoresce under certain illuminations.

In a nutshell, the ink produces marks that are invisible to the human eye. Under proper illumination this ink can be seen through these glasses. The lenses in fact shift the wavelength of the light reflected from the ink marks to fall within the visible range that humans can see.

It should also be noted that this system cannot produce marks that are as strong as the marks produced by the best red-lens system. Although some may see this as a flaw, it is actually a desirable feature. Should anyone grab these glasses and look at the cards, chances are, they would not be able to notice the marks (at least not immediately). This should be considered a security feature, rather than a flaw.

It should also be noted that there is a percentage of people that are unable to use this luminous system. The reason is simply because some people actually suffer from some forms of color blindness. The percentage of people that suffer from one or another form of color blindness is actually higher than most people are aware of. According to various statistics, color blindness is affecting 12% to 20% of male population, and also a tiny fraction of female population. Most people don't even realize that they suffer from some form of color blindness until they take a color vision test.