What are thermal imaging cameras? Well, while most people associate them with nail biting police chases and night-time helicopter searches, they’re in fact used widely across a huge range of sectors. In more recent months, due to the pandemic, it’s also likely you may have seen one going into a restaurant, where a camera points at you and shows up with different colours on your face and forehead on a screen. Here, thermal imaging cameras are used to detect individuals with a higher temperature which is often indicative of Covid-19 or other viral infections which cause fevers.
These cameras are able to scan large numbers of people quickly and efficiently and can also scan multiple people at once. Since so many businesses, especially in hospitality, have implemented thermal imaging cameras in their premises, it’s likely that they will continue to be used to prevent or limit the spread of infection in public places much more routinely in years to come. However, as well as being useful for detecting medical abnormalities, thermal imaging cameras are also used by weather trackers, who use them to track high (often colder) or low (often warmer) pressure areas. If you watch the weather forecast on the television, the moving and colourful weather graphs visible on screen are the product of thermal imaging technology.
So how does thermal imaging technology actually work? Containing small measuring devices, thermal imaging cameras capture infrared radiation, the radiation all of us emit and feel as heat. These small measuring devices, or microbolometers, then show a colour depending on the temperature of the thing measured – blue, green, or purple if cold and red, yellow, or orange if warm. Because of these bright colours and the fact that all people emit a relatively substantial amount of heat in comparison to the environment, this makes these cameras an ideal form of night vision that can highlight intruders from their surroundings in the dark.
If you think that you might be able to use thermal imaging cameras around your business, or are interested in hearing more, then the team at Corona IT Solutions is here to help. Or, if you’d like to hear more about different ways you can protect your business or other options for CCTV installation and surveillance, check out our blog.
