As the Pentagon continues to build a lighter, faster and stronger soldier of the future, new technology that could provide night vision without bulky goggles has caught the Army’s eye. Researchers at the University of Michigan, Ted Norris and Zhaohui Zhong, have created a super-thin infrared light sensor using graphene — an atom-thin material related to graphite — that could be layered onto contact lenses. Graphene absorbs infrared rays and translates them into an electrical signal, in a similar fashion to how silicon chips work with visible light in a digital camera. The team of engineers and computer scientists placed an insulating layer between two graphene layers and then added electric current. When infrared light hits the layered product, its electrical reaction is amplified strongly enough to be converted into a visible image.