What is the difference between the visual effects of monocular night vision and binocular night vision in low light environments?

Brightness and clarity

Monocular night vision(PVS-14): Monocular night vision can enhance light in dark environments, allowing users to see the target object. However, since only one eye receives the enhanced image, the brain may feel that the overall brightness and clarity of the image are slightly inferior when processing monocular visual information. Because the information obtained by a single eye is limited, in some complex low-light scenes, such as observing vegetation and animals in a very dark forest, a monocular night vision may not be able to distinguish details as well as a binocular.

Binocular night vision(PVS-31): The two imaging channels of a binocular night vision can provide enhanced light information to both eyes at the same time. This way of binocular observation will be integrated into a clearer and brighter visual image by the brain. Under the same dark light conditions, such as observing ships at sea at night, binocular night vision devices allow users to see the outlines, details and surrounding environmental conditions of distant ships more clearly.

Field of view and depth perception

Monocular night vision devices(PVS-14): Monocular night vision devices have a relatively narrow field of view. In darker environments, the limitations of the field of view may cause users to miss some objects at the edge of the field of view. Moreover, monocular observation has almost no depth perception ability, and it is difficult to accurately judge the distance and spatial relationship between objects. For example, when observing the terrain of a mountainous area through a monocular night vision device at night, it is difficult to judge the depth of the valley and the steepness of the slope.

Binocular night vision devices(PVS-31): Binocular night vision devices have a wider field of view, allowing users to see more scenes in dark environments. More importantly, binocular vision can provide natural depth perception. Through binocular parallax, the brain can accurately judge the spatial relationship of objects such as distance, height, etc. In military operations in dark environments, such as raiding buildings at night, users can use binocular night vision devices to accurately judge the distance between the doors and windows of the building and the spatial layout of objects inside the building.

• Previous: How to choose between monocular night vision goggles and binocular night vision goggles?
• Next: The difference between the second-generation and third-generation night vision image intensifier tubes