# Is it possible to see in infrared and regular visible light at the same time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 25, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-see-in-infrared-and-regular-visible-light-at-the-same-time/555030 "2010-09-25T17:54:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-see-in-infrared-and-regular-visible-light-at-the-same-time/555030/21 "2010-09-27T04:05:35Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > What about animals that perceive IR or, on the other side, UV? Pit Vipers in particular seem to have an integrated heat vision - see [this article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_sensing_in_snakes). Note from the above: _Some neurons appear to be tuned to detect movement in one direction. It has been found that the snake’s visual and infrared maps of the world are overlaid in the optic tectum. This combined information is relayed via the tectum to the forebrain._ ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-see-in-infrared-and-regular-visible-light-at-the-same-time/555030/22 "2010-09-27T09:28:09Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Could some cross-breeding / genetic tampering hypotheically result in a mammal with receptors for visible light plus infrared plus UV? How would that animal perceive the world, once it got used to the overwhelming sensual impression? I think that would be closest to what the OP asked. IR is hard because has a very high absorbance for the IR spectrum, so even if you had IR receptors, an eyeball full of mostly water is going to be opaque to it. IIRC, the only creatures with any sort of infravision are insects and pit vipers, the pit vipers having literal “pits” in their heads lined with IR-sensitive cells so the IR only passes through air. Never been clear how the insect compound eye even works. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-see-in-infrared-and-regular-visible-light-at-the-same-time/555030/23 "2010-09-27T10:13:35Z")
The IR sensor on a FLIR is cooled to something like 70 K in order to be able to sufficiently detect heat energy. Not really a workable technique for a biological system. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-see-in-infrared-and-regular-visible-light-at-the-same-time/555030/24 "2010-09-27T11:17:49Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > > [@constanze](#): > > > > My laymen understanding was that other animals either have a more limited colour spectrum, or a shifted one - deer, I think, can see highest in infrared because that’s advanteous in the forest, but they lack other colours. > > Most vertebrates other than mammals are in fact tetrachromats, with four types of color receptors, one of which can perceive UV. Birds see a far greater range of colors than we can, and it has recently been found that some species that appear dully colored to us are in fact brightly colored in UV. The king of colour vision is of course the mantis shrimp, which can see much of the IR and UV spectrum, visible light and can differentiate various kinds of polarised light ([link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp#Eyes)) * * * Of course, we can’t say what a mantis shrimp’s vision actually looks like, from its POV. In fact, I can never be sure even that you and I perceive colour the same way. How the brain generates the perception of colour, and how we could ever describe colour objectively is considered a significant, maybe even unsolvable, problem. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-see-in-infrared-and-regular-visible-light-at-the-same-time/555030.md?page=1)