Developments in thermal imaging technology

The ability to see in the dark is a key differentiator in many military scenarios and the development of thermal imaging (TI) systems has provided the military with a battle winning capability. One of the current key thrusts is to be able to detect and identify targets at significantly longer ranges. The research programme in QinetiQ has been providing solutions to satisfy these requirements for many years. In addition, one of the major benefits from this research, has been the opportunity to provide TI sensors into the civil market for application including fire fighting. In this review many of the new concepts currently being developed are described and illustrated.