Night vision goggles, thermal vision goggles, thermal imaging cameras

Electricity and light are both forms of energy. Converting one form into the other is possible and useful across different industry domains. Among them is the sector of night vision devices, whose operating principle is pretty straightforward: light is converted into electricity, which in turn undergoes an amplification process before being transformed back into light.

Night vision goggles or glasses, technically referred to as image intensifiers, pick up the small amounts of light present in naturally dark or darkened environments, and boost them accordingly, so as to help our eyes to perceive visual stimuli as effectively as possible. Still, it goes without saying that, under very low-light conditions, image intensifiers cannot operate adequately. In a pitch black room, an image intensifier would be completely useless.

Under these circumstances, the alternative, go-to solution is to use a thermal vision goggles or thermal imaging camera. Instead of picking up the light reflected by objects, thermal imaging cameras focus on the heat that objects, both animate and inanimate, give off. Generally speaking, living organisms are warmer than the dark surrounding environment they move about in, and this clearly applies to vehicles and cars, too. Hot objects emit infrared radiation from their surfaces, which is a form of energy similar to light but with different wavelength. It is relatively simple to build a camera that picks up infrared radiation and turns it into visible light: it works just like a digital camera, except for the fact that the image sensor (CMOS - CCD) reacts to infrared radiation rather than to light. Some types of infrared cameras employ a variety of colors to indicate objects of different temperatures, and are traditionally used to point out events such as heat changes in specific objects.

Electricity and light are both forms of energy. Converting one form into the other is possible and useful across different industry domains. Among them is the sector of night vision devices, whose operating principle is pretty straightforward: light is converted into electricity, which in turn undergoes an amplification process before being transformed back into light....

Night vision goggles or glasses, technically referred to as image intensifiers, pick up the small amounts of light present in naturally dark or darkened environments, and boost them accordingly, so as to help our eyes to perceive visual stimuli as effectively as possible. Still, it goes without saying that, under very low-light conditions, image intensifiers cannot operate adequately. In a pitch black room, an image intensifier would be completely useless.

Under these circumstances, the alternative, go-to solution is to use a thermal vision goggles or thermal imaging camera. Instead of picking up the light reflected by objects, thermal imaging cameras focus on the heat that objects, both animate and inanimate, give off. Generally speaking, living organisms are warmer than the dark surrounding environment they move about in, and this clearly applies to vehicles and cars, too. Hot objects emit infrared radiation from their surfaces, which is a form of energy similar to light but with different wavelength. It is relatively simple to build a camera that picks up infrared radiation and turns it into visible light: it works just like a digital camera, except for the fact that the image sensor (CMOS - CCD) reacts to infrared radiation rather than to light. Some types of infrared cameras employ a variety of colors to indicate objects of different temperatures, and are traditionally used to point out events such as heat changes in specific objects. Read More