Infrared Thermal Imaging Footage of Town Scene at Night

Short thermal video taken with a Thermoteknix "MIRICLE 110K" Miniature Thermal Imaging Camera, with a 384x288 pixel resolution.   Much of this monochrome footage looks little different from standard night vision footage, until you start noticing the little details, like visible car exhaust.

Infrared Thermal Imaging Footage of Town Scene at Night

The MIRICLE camera product line is available with manual or motorized focus lenses.

Along with their cameras, Thermoteknix offers analysis software capable of processing images from all major thermal imaging cameras, not just their own.  And they have a sense of humor, to boot.

Fluke Thermography Forum

While wandering around Fluke's website after watching their videos yesterday, I ran across their "Test and Measurement Tool Users Community", an online discussion forum including the relatively inactive Thermography Forum, as well as areas for user discussion of other Fluke products.

While this forum hasn't had much traffic lately, there is one good older thread full of interesting thermal images, entitled Got Thermal Images?.

The included thermograph comes from Michael S, a Senior Product Marketing Manager in Fluke's Thermal Imaging Products division, and is a great example of their "IR-Fusion®" feature.

Free thermography seminars

Fluke offers free or inexpensive "Thermal Imaging Hands-on Seminars" around the United States. Next week alone Fluke has 6 such events scheduled, half of which are free, the others are longer, cost $99-$125, and include additional materials or test tools in the price (varies by event). These seminars are primarily run by Fluke, Graybar, or Grainger.

Fluke encourages attendance not only by professionals who want to find out more about thermal imaging in general, but also by electricians and technicians who may already be experienced in using thermal imaging.

These free seminars generally last 2-3 hours and cover the fundamentals of thermal imaging, using thermography for troubleshooting, and how to select the right imager for your application. If you already own a camera, they encourage you to bring your Fluke Thermal Imager to the class.

Fluke also offers a series of 8 free on-line seminars using Webex.   Many of these are centered around the Fluke Ti25/Ti10/TiR1/TiR Thermal Imagers, while others are more general and teach concepts applicable to all makes of thermal imagers.  The live events generally are offered once a month, run about 45 minutes long and are interactive, including in-depth discussion and Q&A time.   If the live schedule does not work for you, pre-recorded videos are available, these run 10-20 minutes and offer an overview of the topic.

Non-product-specific Fluke seminars include:

• Introduction to Thermography
• Energy Auditing & Weatherization with Thermal Imagers
• Building Inspections with Thermal Imaging
• Thermal Imaging in Electrical Applications
• Thermal Imaging in Electro-Mechanical & Mechanical Applications
• (See the Fluke training US site for the complete list)

If you are new to the topic, why not spend 15 minutes to watch their free Introduction to Thermography video now?  (Requires a WMV-capable player)

Firehouse Subs donates fire imaging tools to Knoxville FD

Last week, two thermal imaging cameras were donated to the Knox County Fire Bureau by the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation. Full story here. No information was available on the specific brand and model purchase, the cost was given as simply "About $10,000 per camera".

The foundation is primarily funded by the Firehouse Subs restaurant chain, with 361 locations, primarily in the southern parts of the United States.

Local fire departments can apply to the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, a non-profit organization, for grants to purchase equipment. They also offer scholarship programs for future firefighters and law enforcement, prevention and educational tools and ground assistance during disasters by feeding victims and medical workers on the scene.

Similar cameras were given to the Belevedere, South Carolina  volunteer fire department in early March, depicted in the image below:

March 11, 2009

Thermal Image Gallery

FLIR Systems has a large IR "Image Gallery" on their web site, organized by application. 

The "User Map"

You may have noticed the world map at the bottom of the page, perhaps wondered what it is and what the colors depict.

The "map" is an applet from whos.amung.us, one of many site stat visualizations they offer, all at no charge. This particular visualization is called a "heat map" (no relation to thermography).

First Caturday in April

For Caturday, I present a 'false color' image of a young female Maine Coon.  Image taken with a SPi RAZ-iR handheld thermal imager.

The Maine Coon is an American long-haired cat commonly believed to have descended from the pairings of common New England short-haired domestic cats and long-haired breeds brought overseas by English seafarers. One of the largest breeds of domestic cat, females weigh between 8 and 12 pounds (this queen weighs in at exactly 10 pounds).  The Maine Coon breed is known for "Heavily furred ears with extra long tufts of fur growing from inside help keep their ears warm".

Low budget thermography with infrared thermometers

Don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a thermal imager, but interested in the science behind infrared thermography?

Consider investing in a non-contact infrared thermometer.  At under $50, these simple temperature probes use the same basic concepts, though with much lower resolution and temperature accuracy (generally +/- 4.5F.

Infrared Thermometers, also known as Infrared Pyrometers, measure the surface temperature of objects from a distance. Many portable handheld sensors will include a visible (red) laser emitter. The laser is not necessary for temperature measurement, it's purpose is simply to provide a visual indication of the approximate location from which the measurement is taken. Many people misinterpret the presence of the laser as being integral to the temperature measurement functionality and call these "laser thermometers" or "laser surface thermometers".

It would take considerable effort to produce a slow-scan thermograph using a common consumer IR thermometer, including additional (expensive) thermally transparent optics. The biggest stumbling block is the poor distance-to-spot (D:S) ratio on these units. A non-contact thermometer's distance-to-spot ratio is the ratio of the distance to the object and the diameter of the temperature measurement area. For instance if the D:S ratio is 12:1, measurement of an object 12 inches away will average the temperature over a 1-inch diameter area. Not exactly high-def.

Fluke TiR at $4K.

www.bergeng.com offers the Fluke TiR Thermal Imager for just over $4K.  Berg Engineering does not stock a large inventory of product, but if you're based near Chicago, they could be a worthwhile option if you want a good price on a TiR.

The TiR has a 160 X 120 FPA uncooled microbolometer with 100mk sensitivity, and saves images to a removeable SD memory card.   Like most manufacturers, they offer a 2-year warranty. Unlike many, full TiR user manuals are on their web site, and the product is actually "ruggedized" and engineered to survive a 2 meter fall.  Fluke in general is one of the most popular test and engineering tool manufacturers.

Fluke offers a very good picture and battery-life (3+ hours) in this price range. If your budget is higher, consider the B-CAM SD for just under $7K.

I'd love to get my hands on either one, if only for a few hours, to write a true hands-on review, but at these price points the units rent for upwards of $100/day.

Mikron Infrared "MikroShot" preview

Mikron Infrared sells the MikroSHOT thermal imaging camera, Blackbody Calibration Sources, and other thermal imaging tools.

Their website includes a variety of free educational materials.   The web site offers technical references, tools, and a number of hour long web seminars, all at no cost (or in exchange for providing your contact information so they can try to sell you thermal imaging products)

Non-vendor-specific resources on the Mikron/LumaSense web sites:

• The Theoretical Basis For Radiation Measurements
• Mikron Blackbody Radiation Calculator (MBRC) (Free Windows software)
• Web seminars
  
• (More)

Their new (announced 3/3/2009) MikroSHOT imager is a lightweight camera selling for around $6K, with a 10-cm minimum focal length and autofocus from 1.3 m to infinity. Having a 160x120 pixel sensor and a thermal resolution of 0.2°C, the MikroSHOT saves visible and thermal images to an SD card in JPEG format. Unlike many (most) other thermal imagers, the camera operates on 3 standard AA rechargable batteries and includes an AC adapter.

This camera looks and operates like a DSLR from the early 1990s, right down the the presence of a "hot shoe" for an external flash!

Funding Research:

Mikron Infrared is a division of LumaSense Technologies, Inc.. LumaSense is funded by Oak Investment Partners and dfj / Element (Element Partners), both investors are private venture capital firms.

Instructional video on "Interior Thermography"

Found this informative video showing "Interior Thermography", including a good primer on the technology for beginners. Unfortunately, the video includes only three imager screen shots.

Featuring Todd Stevens, this video by Show Me How Videos was  added to YouTube on July 24, 2007:

Thermography techniques are used to locate and identify suspect areas of including moisture, energy loss and electrical concerns. Mr. Stevens a veteran thermographer shares his knowledge and experience with you throughout this video. In this introduction to thermal imaging, Todd will discuss basic infrared camera functions and procedures including proper use of the equipment. He also discusses the science behind the equipment and some of the practical uses.

The complete series can be purchased on DVD from Amazon.com.

Broadland District Council spends $42K to hire spy plane carrying a thermal camera to determine which homes are wasting energy

For five days at the end of January, a Leicestershire-based spy plane circled the English towns of Aylsham, Reepham and Acle. A secret plot by MI-5? A publicity stunt? No, just the Broadland District Council trying to help residents and local businesses save money on their heating bills.  This is part of a larger initiative announced on October 14th, 2008.

According to the Daily Mail "Thermal imaging cameras are being used to create colour-coded maps which will enable council officers to identify offenders and pay them a visit to educate them about the harm to the environment and measures they can take."  (emphasis mine)

With the UK having the largest deployment of CCTV in public spaces, it's not particularly suprising that they would expand beyond just monitoring the population using the visible spectrum. As Broadland's Liberal Democrat group leader Stuart Beadle said "Cameras are in place all over today and we have to accept them. So long as the right guidelines are in place and it will bring benefits, I think the scheme is a good thing".

FLIR stock outlook

Tom Konrad posts a brief analysis of the performance and outlook for FLIR Systems, Inc (FLIR). In the opinion of many analysts, due to both the military and the civilian applications of thermal imaging technology, companies such as Flir clearly have growth potential. Tom believes that "because an IR audit is cheaper than a full energy audit, some state weatherization programs or utility Demand Side Management programs will choose to to adopt IR audits as the sole energy audit used in their program.". In other words, these cameras are ideal for lower-budget refit, including ever-popular "green building" projects.

Tom says in part

"Weatherization of low income housing and Federal building retrofits are a major component of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka "Stimulus Package.") This will require the hiring and training of thousands of new energy auditors, for whom infrared (IR) imaging is an extremely versatile tool, both in terms of finding out what problems need to be fixed, and for convincing the customer that they are necessary. IR imaging is not necessary for an effective energy audit, but it is increasingly becoming part of the energy auditor's standard kit. I expect that new energy auditors are likely to flock to the technology because of its strong visual appeal. In addition, it requires training to use IR cameras properly, a service which Flir also provides. "

Found another SPi web site, this time a web forum

Imaging1 is one of the many, many web sites operated by SPi.  Often these are "cobweb sites", few having been updated significantly since 1991, and none offering any real interactive content -- for example "review this product" links go nowhere.

Recently I stumbled upon a new site, this time an actual functional web forum, http://imaging1.yuku.com/

This doesn't appear to be a highly active message board, with very few posts.  Still, there are occasionally some interesting topics on this site, and it is interesting to finally see something associated with SPi having timestamps less than a month old!

Yuku itself is also interesting, they host online communities, including a free (ad-supported) version.  Features include "profiles, chat, photo galleries, polls, community calendars, in-line video embedding, blogs", and for $72 a year you can "go gold", removing their ads and pop-ups.  If your site exceeds 50,000 page views per month, there is an additional fee.

Infrared Training and the InterNACHI Message Board for IR

InterNACHI (International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, Inc) offers a web discussion forum.  Read access is public, posting requires registration and approval by a moderator, which can take quite some time.

The association offers a number of free benefits to certified members, and has many chapters and events.  Membership cost is $289.   If you're planning to get into Home Inspection, this could be a good investment of your time and money.

Back on topic, their home inspection forums include an area dedicated to "Thermal Imaging, Infrared Cameras & Energy Audits".  This is a relatively active message board (multiple posts per day).  Most of the participants have Fluke or FLIR products.

If you're thinking about getting started in Home Inspection, one member, John McKenna, is offering a training course including a Fluke TiR .   With completion you can become a Infrared Certified Thermographer:

Here's a simple example of the utility of Infrared Thermography in home and building inspection:

How to Make a Good Infrared Image: thermograph.net

Thermograph.Net had an abortive attempt at a blog in September/Ocotber 2008.  While the site is no longer updated, one of the few posts from October was the very helpful entry "How to Make a Good Infrared Image", giving suggestions for taking quality thermogram images.

While you should go read the post, it boils down to:

1. Focus!
   
2. Temperature level
   
3. Distance
   
4. Palettes
   

The first item, focus, is the most important.  Poor focus makes it impossible to properly evaluate hot spots.  Once you've captured an unfocused image, no amount of editing can improve it. People have been spoiled by autofocus consumer and prosumer digital cameras, this important skill is neglected.  Distance is also key, but generally boils down to getting as close as possible (ties back to #1)

Do megapixels matter?

One of the first things people find confusing when discussing Infrared Thermography is the resolution of these cameras, or more accurately, the lack thereof.

While consumer cameras claiming 8-11 megapixels cost not much more than one or two hundred dollars, a thermal imager at a hundred times the price offers barely 0.9 megapixels!

This is because the technology behind uncooled infrared detectors (e.g. FPA microbolometers) is inherently different from the technology of visible light cameras, and also because the commercial applications of thermographic cameras does not require high pixel resolution, but rather high thermal sensitivity.   That is to say, it's not how many pixels you have, but how many bits-per-pixel, in this case not of "color" but rather of degrees of millikelvin (°mk).  Common sensors have a sensitivity of 100ml, or about 0.1°C

Here's some sample shots from an IRTalk thread, showing images from various sensor array sizes;  even with the smallest sensor, thermal sensitivity is the key criteria -- even with relatively few pixels, the necessary information for a thermal survey is collected.

Top:Residential home with 3 different sensors.

Bottom: Outdoor substation at "high" resolution.

Photo by Matt Schwoegler

SPi product placement on CSI:NY

SPi scored a major coup with their "RAZ-iR" product appearing in an episode (Season 5 Episode 15)  of CSI:NY.  This isn't the first time a Thermal Imaging Camera was used in a CSI episode (previously seen on CSI:Miami, etc), but may be the first appearance of a handheld unit on the show.

See below how this drama depicts the imager as "seeing" a sharp outline of a living human body inside a metal office supply cabinet.   Any volunteers to recreate this scene and show how this would really appear? 

In real life, they'd just send in a police dog.

I doubt real-world crime scene investigators have this particular piece of technology available, but giving investigators expensive or outright non-existent tools is par for the course for television in general, and the CSI franchise in particular.  Overstating the capabilities of thermography is a common TV Trope, often attributing to these cameras visualization not even feasible with millimeter wave radar.