About Thermal Imaging

All objects, both natural and manmade, emit infrared energy as heat. By detecting very subtle temperature differences of everything in view, infrared (or thermal imaging) technology reveals what otherwise would be invisible to the naked eye. Even in complete darkness and challenging weather conditions, thermal imaging gives users the ability to see the unseen.

First developed for military purposes, thermal imaging has since been adopted by law enforcement, fire and rescue teams and security professionals.

• For law enforcement and security staff, thermal imaging detects suspicious activity over long distances in total darkness and through fog, smoke, dust, foliage, and many other obscurants. This allows officers to approach in stealth mode and make better informed decisions more quickly. Cameras may be handheld, vehicle-mounted, tripod-mounted, or weapon-mounted.
• For security and surveillance systems, thermal imaging cameras complement CCTV cameras to provide comprehensive threat detection and integrate seamlessly with larger networks
• For predictive maintenance, thermal imaging reveals “hot spots” where failure may be imminent in many electrical and industrial facilities and installations.

In order to understand thermal imaging, it is important to understand something about light. The amount of energy in a light wave is related to its wavelength: Shorter wavelengths have higher energy. Of visible light, violet has the most energy, and red has the least. Just next to the visible light spectrum is the infrared spectrum.

Infrared light can be split into three categories

1. Near-infrared (near-IR) – Closest to visible light, near-IR has wavelengths that range from 0.7 to 1.3 microns, or 700 billionths to 1,300 billionths of a meter.
2. Mid-infrared (mid-IR) – Mid-IR has wavelengths ranging from 1.3 to 3 microns. Both near-IR and mid-IR are used by a variety of electronic devices, including remote controls.
3. Thermal-infrared (thermal-IR) – Occupying the largest part of the infrared spectrum, thermal-IR has wavelengths ranging from 3 microns to over 30 microns.

The key difference between thermal-IR and the other two is that thermal-IR is emitted by an object instead of reflected off it. Infrared light is emitted by an object because of what is happening at the atomic level.

A special lens of thermal scope focuses the infrared light emitted by all of the objects in view

The focused light is scanned by a phased array of infrared-detector elements. The detector elements create a very detailed temperature pattern called a thermogram. It only takes about one-thirtieth of a second for the detector array to obtain the temperature information to make the thermogram. This information is obtained from several thousand points in the field of view of the detector array.

The thermogram created by the detector elements is translated into electric impulses.

The impulses are sent to a signal-processing unit, a circuit board with a dedicated chip that translates the information from the elements into data for the display.

The signal-processing unit sends the information to the display, where it appears as various colors depending on the intensity of the infrared emission. The combination of all the impulses from all of the elements creates the image.

Unlike traditional most night-vision equipment which uses image-enhancement technology, thermal imaging is great for detecting people or working in near-absolute darkness with little or no ambient lighting (i.e. stars, moonlight, etc, )