L-3 Communications Thermal-Eye X-50, Руководство пользователя

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Page 7 X-50 User Manual
Infrared energy, often referred to as infrared or IR , is
electromagnetic radiation that travels in a straight line
through space, similar to visible light. Although infrared
shares some of the properties of visible light, its different
wavelength has several unique characteristics. For
instance, materials that are opaque to visible light may be
transparent to infrared, and vice–versa.
Also, unlike visible light, which is given off by ordinary
objects only at very high temperatures (e.g. light bulbs),
long wavelength infrared (7–14
μ
m) is emitted by all
objects at ordinary temperatures. This means infrared is all
around us all the time, even in the dark. Different objects
give off varying amounts of infrared, depending on the
temperature of the object.
The X-50 was designed to sense differing amounts of long
wavelength infrared coming from the various areas of a
scene and to convert them to corresponding intensities of
visible light on a display. This allows true see–in–the–dark
capability, as well as the ability to discern additional
information—differences in temperature—by observing
the thermal properties of objects in any light condition.