The image is a thermal picture of me taken with aFlir Camera. It shows a heat map of my face. Yesterday I was watching the news, and one of the things I have talked about for the past three years was demonstrated by the police in Northern Virginia. A man wandered away from an Alzheimers Unit. Worrisome, and sadly happens on occasion, but once wandering away, the person may not be able to find their way back. The hard part of this particular story comes next. The retirement facility where the person lived, is near a state park with lots of open lands and dusk was falling. By the time the frantic staff got ahold of 011, it was dark, and they were unable to find the person.
Missing people at night can be doubly bad. So the police used technology to solve the problem. By loading a FLIR heat camera module into a drone, they have the capability of seeing warmth at night. The human body is more ware than plant life. They were able in less than an hour to see, find and return the lost patient to the facility. As drones gain longer and longer flight time, they will be able to be used on many more search and rescue missions. Today you can drone with the Fair modules (night vision), Sonar, 4k camera and Lidar (a form of mapping radar). The limit on larger drones of flight time is somewhat problematic, but you can use computers to design a search grid that allows you to cover much more ground with a drone that you ever could with people.
There are many more uses for thermal images by the way. One of the easy ones is simply walking around your house and seeing in the winter where cold air (blue) is leaking into your house. Or in the summer where hot air is leaking into your house (red). Simply pointing the thermal camera gets you the images of what you are looking at and the current temperature. You can also get laser thermometers that allow you o stand away from an object and determine its temperature as well. Like, when your car is overheating, you really shouldn’t touch the radiator cap. Yes, the rule of thumb is to check the radiator fluid level, but that cap is hot. Using a laser thermometer you can find out just how hot, before you burn yourself!
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yes, i stopped the innovation series for awhile. Ok?
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do you notice the windows in your house being cold in the winter?
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Do you ever wonder why your house is so hot in the summer?
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What an interesting photo, and how it was captured.
it is amazing but we are moving to a world where computers won’t exist. It will be your phone for the win!
I am currently writing about facial recognition technology. Is there a similarity between thermal imaging and facial recognition technology?
There is and there isn’t. So the thermal imaging systems use a len’s designed to capture IR. Facial Recognition can use any camera including IR, but it is more an AI or ML driven pattern matching system.
Q: yes, i stopped the innovation series for awhile. Ok?
Yes (7 votes) – 70%
No (3 votes) – 30%
Q: do you notice the windows in your house being cold in the winter?
Yes (11 votes) – 100%
Q: Do you ever wonder why your house is so hot in the summer?
Yes (6 votes) – 55%
No (5 votes) – 45%
That is interesting, great if thermal imaging helps you find lost people
It made the news (from Northern Virginia) ut also Arizona in saving people!
my gosh… i almost run under the bed. phew i forgot just an imaging. lol ?
Sorry it is a scary picture! The tech is cool though!
one time, i tried these effects and made myself looking weird… my sister got angry at me saying, why do I post pictures that I look ridiculous and not beautiful. from then on i stopped posting pictures of whatever but I still post funny selfies.
hahaha not scared anymore, and yes you are absolutely right, tech is cool as always, thats why I don’t like to teach Photoshop anymore. haha
Because we can make pictures like that
I’ve seen squad cars with an IR array on the top, and was wondering when they’d miniaturize the tech for drone use…
I think it has been roughly five years now, but maybe a bit more. The quality of the image declines the smaller the thermal camera.
but that’s the brilliant thing about IR- you don’t really need hi rez, just a general idea of a heat source is enough…
That is true, the FLIR cameras range from the smaller iphone adapter (sees roughly 4 feet at max. to the larger that can see 15-30 feet very clearly!
for law enforcement, I would expect wanting long range lorez
Yes, they have much longer range camera IR, and other than available on the market.
generally I am not a fan of restricted tech, but I can see the reason for it in this case…
At least I know what you are talking about here. I saw something similar on CSI. This is great for finding people in the dark as you say.
I cannot wait until they are able to deploy this system to find lost hikers faster!
It is a very interesting camera, and I can imagine the benefits to be used in cold areas.
It actually works in warmer areas as well, the human body has a unique heat signature!
Before you start posting this, I only saw the use of this kind of camera from various action movies.
understood, hollywood uses effects and cameras of many different types
I’m glad you can have what you need as a technology expert.
I have most of what I would need, some of what I need sits on servers that I cannot physically get to, which can be annoying at times.
There are always things to fight for…
That is true, for now most of my fight is in getting the message across.
I agree with you. It seems that it is part of our life’s mission.
Nice story with a happy ending. It’s also good that technology is advancing towards the resolution of human lives.
It is a very happy ending! Thanks!!!!
Those innovations rock the world! Those people who invented them are like super intelligent, they keep us to be amazed
That really is true, the art of the possible keeps moving!
I saw this story on the news and was amazed at how technology came into play at saving lives. Very impressive.
The best part of course, they found the person before it got really cool that evening!!!!
I also hear about such cameras for the first time … it is true that I am more amateur engaged in photography and all my pictures are painted with the phone
It truly is amazing how much you can do with your phone, and with cameras!
And with the phone it’s easy to paint … everything is automatic
Is this new camera introduced ?
Thermal imaging cameras have been around for a long time. I’ve had one for more than 10 years (but i used it in a previous job a lot).
Okay , that’s nice , I never heard about this camera before
They have been used in the industry around the world for more than 40 years. When you have a million dollar plus machine, knowing when it is overheating from a 10,000 camera, is critical.