hightech
Beat-Ready And Affordable
Some 100 years after Newton conducted early experiments with visible light, a scientist, William Herschel, discovered “heat energy” while experimenting with filters he was using to watch the sun through a telescope. In recent decades science has honed “thermal energy” technology, resulting in today’s almost science fiction-like performance of modern infrared or thermal imagers.
We’re all familiar with chases seen through police helicopter thermal imaging cameras, or the “hot” white image of a suspect hiding in a dark canyon or alley. Now, we’re also familiar with the images of military targets being neatly picked-off in the dark by our fighting troops. These images, done using heat signatures as opposed to simply amplifying light (think: night vision goggles), are immune to light of any kind since the heat wavelengths are not in the visible light spectrum. It’s possible to hide behind foliage, for instance, and be invisible to someone with night vision goggles (light amplification); but that same suspect would instantly stand out in the viewfinder of a thermal imager due to their virtually impossible-to-hide heat signature.
Historically, those compelling black and white thermal images were generated by equipment often costing in the tens of thousands to upward of a million dollars, far out of reach of most police agencies, and certainly out of reach of any beat cop. But only recently, companies like FLIR have created new models of hand-held, amazingly low-cost “personal” units, suddenly putting the power of thermal imaging literally into the hands of beat cops anywhere.
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