Thermal Imaging Detailed Outline

Thermal Imaging

I. Introduction
a. What is Thermal Imaging
i. An imaging technology that aids human sight but capturing infrared heat that is emitted from objects.
ii. Thermal imaging is different from Night Vision because night vision picks up on the available light in an area.
b. How does it work
i. There is a camera with a special lens to detect radiation.
ii. The lens picks up the radiation.
iii. The information that is then taken from the lens is then formed into a temperature map.
iv. The Temperature map is then translated into electrical impulses.
v. They are then converted into data which is converted to being visible to the human eye.
c. History of Thermal Imaging
i. The Ancient Egyptians used their fingertips to detect temperature change across the body. They recorded what parts of the body were naturally warmer and cooler. They discovered that even slight changes in temperature means an abnormality.
ii. Hippocrates and Ancient Greece: In Ancient Grecians would immerse the body in mud and which ever area dried faster meant that part of the body was hotter or cooler.
1. That part of the body was the diseased tissue
iii. Sir William Herschel, an astronomer discovered infrared radiation in 1880
iv. Who created modern day thermal imaging?
1. Texas Instruments for the military. Night combat and combat in limited visibility combat fields.
v. Who/What was it created for?
1. Thermal Imaging was created initially for military use. It was the most advanced system for night/ smoky/ limited vision combat.
2. Shortly after the military first used the very basic technology it was made available to other government agencies, namely fire departments.
II. What is thermal imaging used for today?
a. Cooling/ Heating efficiencies in houses. Insulation, windows etc. Where ever heat is escaping in the winter and cool is escaping in the summer.
b. Fire departments use the technology to find missing people in burning buildings and the source of the fire. Where rooms are burning and where they are just filled with smoke.
c. Military, Security and Surveillance.
d. Exercise physiologists use the technology to find the stress points on the body. Anywhere there is a lot of tension or compression on a body part it usually causes significant damage.
e. Medically there are many uses for it.
i. Carpel tunnel
ii. Fibromyalgia
iii. Finding cancerous tumors
iv. Breast health
v. Artery and vein health
1. deep vein thrombosis
vi. Sports injuries
vii. Nerve damage
f. What does thermal imaging mean for the future?
g. Saving lives: God-Like
i. Most people view breakthroughs in medical technology as a good thing but few believe it is not the place of humans to intervene with fate.
ii. Not only does thermal imaging save lives but it also facilitates the military when they are attempting to assassinate a person.
1. Able to see bodies moving around in buildings.