How should I choose my night vision and thermal imaging equipment?
Night vision goggles must have light
The night vision device is actively receiving and imaging, just like our eyes can see reflected light, the working principle of daylight cameras, night vision devices and human eyes is the same: visible light energy hits objects and is reflected, and then the detector Receive and convert it into an image. Whether it is an eye or a night vision device, these detectors must receive enough light, otherwise they will not be able to image.
Those green pictures we see in movies or on TV come from night vision goggles (NVGs) or other devices that use the same core technology. NVGs take a small amount of visible light, amplify it, and project it onto a display.
Cameras made with NVGs technology have the same limitation as the human eye: They can't see well without enough visible light. NVGs and other low-light cameras don't work in environments where the light is too bright or too low. Because the light is too bright to work effectively, but not enough light to see with the naked eye.
Thermal imaging camera requires no light source
A thermal imager can be completely without a light source. Although we call them "cameras," they are actually sensors. FLIRs take pictures with heat energy rather than visible light, and both heat (also known as infrared or thermal energy) and light are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Everything we encounter in our daily lives emits thermal energy, even ice. The hotter an object is, the more thermal energy it emits. This emitted heat energy is called a "heat signature." When two adjacent objects have subtly different heat signatures, even in complete darkness, they will both Appears clearly on FLIR thermal imaging cameras.
Because different materials absorb and radiate heat energy at different rates, this is the real apple and the plastic apple model, there is no difference under the night vision camera, but there is a big difference under the thermal imager, and the Philier thermal image The instrument can translate these detected temperature differences into image detail. While all of this may seem rather complicated, the reality is that thermal imaging cameras are very easy to use.
Thermal imaging cameras do not have these disadvantages. Thermal cameras capture things by heat signatures, which is why you can see things more easily at night with a thermal camera than with a visible light camera, or even a night vision camera. Thermal imagers are great at seeing the gaps between things because they don't just use heat to image, they also respond to small differences in heat between objects.
Night vision devices have the same drawbacks as daylight and low-light TV cameras: they need enough light and enough contrast to produce a usable image. Thermal imaging cameras, on the other hand, can see objects clearly both day and night while creating their own contrast. There is no doubt that a thermal imager is the choice for 24 hour imaging.
