Thermal Imaging Systems

Slides on medical thermography, the science of visualising the patterns formed by changes in skin temperature with an infrared camera. Covers the radiation physics that decides what the camera can see, including absorption and its effect on emissivity and the fact that the human body is almost opaque to the infrared wavelengths used, and the detector, where the smallest temperature change that produces a signal equal to the system noise is the minimum temperature resolution and so defines the sensitivity of the equipment. Distinguishes quantitative thermography, in which successive studies must be made comparable, from the qualitative picture, and describes the detectors used, including the image tube that focuses the radiation onto an infrared-sensitive target and the camera built on an infrared sensor with a digital focal plane array.