Infrared camera provides a better view

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - 06:28 in Physics & Chemistry

At night on an unlit country road: the bends in the road restrict the view ahead and, to make things worse, it is foggy. The car driver is exercising all due care and yet still does not see the deer on the road ahead until it is nearly too late. An emergency stop prevents a collision with the animal just in time. In such situations infrared cameras could provide a better level of safety. Objects at roughly body temperature are luminous in the infrared region at a wavelength of around ten micrometres. Detectors in the camera register this thermal radiation and locate the source of heat. This could enable drivers to see people or animals long before they come into vision through dipped headlights. Other road users would not be inconvenienced by the invisible infrared radiation...

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