How to choose between thermal imaging cameras and night vision devices when using them
Night vision devices must have light
Night vision devices actively receive and image, just like our eyes can see reflected light. The working principles of daylight cameras, night vision devices and human eyes are the same: visible light energy hits the object and is reflected out, and then the detector Receive and convert it into an image. Whether it's eyes or night vision, these detectors must receive enough light or they won't 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 receive a small amount of visible light, amplify it, and project it onto the display.
Cameras made with NVGs technology suffer from the same limitations as the naked eye: without enough visible light, they can't see clearly. NVGs and other low-light cameras don't work in environments with too much light and too little light. Because there is too much light to work effectively, but not enough light to see with the naked eye.
Thermal imaging cameras require no light source
Thermal imaging cameras can have no light source at all. Although we call them "cameras," they are actually sensors. FLIRs take pictures using heat energy rather than visible light. Both heat (also called infrared or thermal energy) and light are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The FILIR thermal imaging camera not only detects heat, it can also detect minute differences in heat, even as small as 0.01 degrees Celsius, and display them as gray or a different color. This can be a difficult idea to understand, and a lot of people just don't understand the concept, so we're going to take a moment to explain it.
Everything we encounter in our daily lives releases heat energy, even ice. The hotter an object is, the more heat 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 Shows up clearly on a FLIR thermal imaging camera.
Because different materials absorb and radiate heat energy at different rates, there is no difference between a real apple and a plastic apple model under a night vision camera, but there is a big difference under a thermal imaging camera, and the Filer thermal image The instrument can convert these detected temperature differences into image details. While all of this may seem quite complex, the reality is that a thermal imaging camera is incredibly easy to use.
Choose a thermal imaging camera
All of these visible light cameras: daylight cameras, NVG cameras, etc., work by detecting reflected light energy. But the amount of reflected light they receive isn't the factor that determines whether you can see with these cameras: image contrast is also important. For example, at night, when there is a lack of visible light, the image contrast naturally decreases, and the performance of the visible light camera is greatly affected.
Thermal imaging cameras do not have these disadvantages. Thermal cameras capture things by their heat signature, which is why you can see more easily at night with a thermal camera than with a visible light camera, or even a night vision camera. Thermal cameras are great at seeing the gaps between things because they don't just use heat to image, they also respond to tiny differences in heat between objects.
Night vision devices suffer from the same disadvantages as daylight and low-light television cameras: they require sufficient light and sufficient contrast to produce a usable image. Thermal cameras, on the other hand, see objects clearly both day and night, while producing their own contrast. There is no doubt that thermal imagers are the 24-hour imaging option.
