Industry Application Analysis of Night Vision Devices
At present, night vision technology has been widely used in finding and rescuing missing persons, searching fugitives, anti-narcotics, and monitoring surrounding conditions, and has become an indispensable tool in law enforcement. With the efforts of designers and staff, night vision technology, especially thermal imaging technology, has become more and more widely used. As far as the current uses are concerned, there are more than a dozen items, and several polices that have been widely recognized are often used. There are:
1. The outline of the building shows that nowadays, the anti-drug operation is becoming more and more complicated, and the planting in many places has also shifted from outdoor to indoor, which adds a lot of trouble to law enforcement officers to investigate and collect evidence. The application of night vision technology solves this problem, because a large halogen lamp of 1 kilowatt is used for indoor planting to provide the light and heat needed for growth. While these lamps are heating the interior of the building, the heat will radiate to the outer surface of the building, and the heat can be seen volatilizing through the thermal imaging camera, thus helping the police in the anti-narcotics operation.
2. Complete the rescue mission and search for fugitives Use the micro-light mirror and thermal imager to search for missing persons or fugitives overnight. People are strong radiators of heat, and it is easy to determine their position with a thermal imager. Thermal imaging can also be used to spot people hiding in cover. For example, when the Georgetown Police Department was escorting two criminals, their negligence caused the criminals to escape, so the police immediately launched a pursuit operation. One of them fled to an overgrown area and hid. The police passed the place where the criminal was hiding three times, but failed to find it with a flashlight. Finally, using a handheld thermal imaging camera produced by Letheon, the criminal was caught in only 25 seconds.
3. Ensure the safety of police officers Using night vision technology, police officers can spot suspects at night without being seen. In one case in California, DEA law enforcement officers used thermal imaging cameras to monitor a gang suspected of clandestine drug manufacturing operating from a stronghold in the mountains. Every night they have to come out to look for the police who are watching them in the woods. The police officers use thermal imaging cameras in the woods to keep themselves from being discovered by the gangsters and ensure their own safety.
4. Vehicle Tracking Vehicles emit a great deal of heat both during and after use. Heat radiation comes not only from the engine, but also from tires, brakes and exhaust pipes. A police helicopter equipped with a thermal imaging camera can track a suspect's vehicle from the air, even without its lights on. Patrol cars equipped with on-board thermal imaging cameras can also track suspect vehicles that have entered the parking lot or have moved away by detecting the heat dissipation of the vehicle that has just been turned off.
5. Disturbed surfaces found The restored soil surface may not be visible to the naked eye, but it can be seen with a thermal imaging camera, because when a surface is disturbed somewhere, the thermal profile of the surface is also destroyed, turning over Overheated soils also radiate differently than compacted soils. Buried objects can be found with this feature of the thermal imager. The police once dealt with such a case. A man killed his wife in a fit of rage. In order to cover up the evidence, the man buried the body in the backyard and covered the burial site with turf. The body was quickly found using a thermal imaging camera. Today, law enforcement agencies are already using thermal imaging cameras to find victims' burial sites. It is generally believed that a new tomb can be found within 90 days with a thermal imager, but recently the American Geographical Association discovered an ancient Egyptian foundation 2,000 years ago with a thermal imager.
6. Find hidden compartments Automakers often use thermal imaging cameras to check cars for malfunctions. Police use this use of thermal imaging cameras to check vehicles for compartments. Drug dealers often place drugs in tires, fake gas tanks and return pipes, or other compartments of the vehicle, making it difficult to spot such flaws by visual inspection alone. It is much simpler to use a thermal imager. For example, a vehicle has two air return pipes and one of them is fake. Observing through a thermal imager, it will be found that the return air pipe in use appears white and hot, while the other one does not. It is reported that the joint federal inspection team on the U.S.-Mexico border has used this method and has discovered thousands of smuggled items of drugs and illegal aliens trying to cross the border.
7. Peripheral monitoring When searching for suspects or dealing with emergencies, the action taken by the police is to block the accident site and send alerts around to prevent suspects from escaping or someone entering the alert area to interfere with the case. A thermal imaging camera can make perimeter control more effective. Today, many countries have begun to use night vision technology to monitor the surrounding areas of criminal correctional institutions, factories and airports day and night to prevent accidents. Thermal imaging cameras can also help police check the safety of commercial areas. Because thermal imaging cameras can't see through glass, usually the windows appear to be integrated with the wall, if the thermal imaging camera can see something in the house, it means that the window is open or broken, so the house has been or is being burglarized . Utilizing this method is efficient and time-saving.
8. Environmental protection Pollutants such as oil and chemicals emit different heat radiation than the surrounding soil or water. Thermal imaging cameras can track these pollutants and find their source. The use was discovered while the US Drug Enforcement Administration was tracking a ship from South America. As the ship sailed into New York Harbor, it was observed by thermal cameras as it opened the sewage system and poured sewage into the harbor. After this incident, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies began to use their own advantages to consciously participate in environmental protection. Today, thermal imaging cameras have been widely used by environmental organizations to find factories that cause pollution, oil slicks on water, etc.
9. Detecting traces Thermal imaging cameras are also of great help to traffic police. Using thermal imaging cameras at the scene of traffic accidents will help them more accurately measure skid marks and investigate skid conditions. When braking, less rubber is left on the road surface, making it difficult to accurately measure the skid distance and the speed of the vehicle at the time of the crash using traditional methods. But thermal imaging cameras can see the heat that tires generate when they rub against the road, so they can be used to get skid data. Where the driver starts to hit the brakes, there will be a visual trail of the coasting, from which it can be determined how fast the driver is actually going.
Thermal cameras can also help police determine which vehicle skid marks belong to. This use is important when there are several visible skid marks unrelated to the accident, since it is not easy to determine which car left which car.
Crime scene investigation is another new use for thermal imaging cameras. Thermal imaging cameras can assist the police in collecting evidence, or confirming key evidence. Blood on the wall or floor, even after being cleaned, can still leave a thermal signature that can be seen by a thermal imaging camera. Thermal imaging cameras cannot identify the type of material, but it can be brought to the attention of investigators. Police officers from the Plano Police Department in the United States once did such an experiment. After writing on the wall, they erased the words, and the traces of the words could still be found with a thermal imager. But these thermal signatures are short-lived, depending on atmospheric conditions. The fingerprints can last for 15 minutes, but if the weather is cold or windy, the marks will disappear quickly.
