What Do Infra Red Cameras Do?

Infra red cameras are also sometimes called thermal imaging cameras and they show a picture of hot and cold objects. This looks very different from the images taken with a normal video or digital still picture camera. It shows the basic shapes of objects, but they are quite blurred and show no detail. Hot objects usually show up as white or yellow and cooler objects show up as darker colours.

Infra red cameras are often used by the police or by the army and navy to detect people who are trying to hide in woodland, or to find enemy vehicles at night. They can also be used to find lost children or climbers on hills and mountains who are trapped by weather.  This is possible because warm bodies and engines are still visible to the thermal imaging camera, no matter how dark it is.

The warm objects can be seen easily against their cooler surroundings. Many search helicopters are now fitter with thermal imaging cameras.