What Is Infrared Imaging?
Infrared imaging is a heat photograph. It is a diagnostic imaging procedure that is sometimes known as thermography. The image is produced via an infrared scanner that photographs the heat being spontaneously emitted from the bodys surface, thus providing important data regarding the local chemical and autonomic nervous system control of body surface temperature. High-resolution infrared imaging is the method that lends itself to strict control and reproducibility and is thus the only method considered acceptable by the American Chiropractic College of Infrared Imaging. Modern high-resolution infrared equipment measures real temperature referenced to an internal calibrated standard and utilizes sophisticated software for initial image display and extensive post-imaging analysis and reporting. Infrared imaging has the advantage of providing physiological / functional information which may be of assistance in addition to, or instead of, the information provided by other imaging tests, wh
Infrared imaging is a technique of capturing invisible infrared images and converting them into visible images. Normal human vision can see only visible light, which is a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum; the electromagnetic spectrum is a scale classifying the different forms of electromagnetic radiation like gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet rays, visible rays, infrared rays, microwaves and radio waves. To see in infrared light, infrared imagers and cameras are required. These have special sensors that do not need visible light to operate. Infrared radiation is produced by all warm-blooded animals and all objects with temperatures above absolute zero; there is no atomic and molecular activity at absolute zero. As the temperature increases, atomic and molecular activity increases, more heat or thermal radiation is produced, and thereby more infrared radiation is emitted. Hot objects give out more infrared radiation than cool objects. The radiation in the infrared imaging may be
What we typically think of as “light” is really electromagnetic radiation that our eyes can see. We perceive the world in the colors of the rainbow, red through violet. But these colors of light are actually a very small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, shown below. Radio waves, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays are all forms of electromagnetic radiation of varying energy. Our eyes are capable of seeing only a very narrow region of the electromagnetic spectrum, and we need special instruments to extend our vision beyond the limitations of the unaided eye. As the energy of light changes, so too does its interaction with matter. Materials that are opaque at one wavelength may be transparent at another. A familiar example of this phenomenon is the penetration of soft tissue by X-rays. What is opaque to visible light becomes transparent to reveal the bones within. Extending human vision with electronic imaging is one of the most powerful techniques available to science a
Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than that of visible light, but shorter than that of microwaves. The name means “below red” (from the Latin infra, “below”), red being the color of visible light with the longest wavelength. Infrared radiation has wavelengths between about 750 nm and 1 mm, spanning five orders of magnitude. Humans at normal body temperature can radiate at a wavelength of 10 microns. Infrared imaging is used extensively for both military and civilian purposes. Military applications include target acquisition, surveillance, night vision, homing and tracking. Non-military uses include thermal efficiency analysis, remote temperature sensing, short-ranged wireless communication, spectroscopy, and weather forecasting. Infrared astronomy uses sensor-equipped telescopes to penetrate dusty regions of space, such as molecular clouds; detect cool objects such as planets, and to view highly red-shifted objects from the early days of the un
‘Infrared imaging’, like visual imaging, is the collection, recording, and displaying of light from a scene. However, ‘infrared’ refers to light with longer wavelengths than that of visual light. Infrared imaging is also referred to as thermal imaging; these terms are taken to be identical. Infrared thermal imaging shows the thermal patterns emitted from, or reflected off of a target, and as such, it does not require visual light.
