Jiming Bao, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Houston, has invented a new method to improve thermal imaging and infrared thermography. These techniques measure and show temperature distributions without physically touching the photographed material.
Thermal cameras and infrared thermometers are very sensitive tools used in various industries, including military and medical diagnostics, because they can correctly monitor temperature from a distance. They detect infrared radiation, undetectable to the human eye, and turn it into visual images. These tools provide useful information about the thermal properties and behaviors of numerous objects and surroundings. However, thermal cameras and thermometers rely on emissivity, a temperature-dependent measure of how effectively an item emits thermal radiation. Multi-spectral approaches solve this by detecting infrared intensity across many wavelengths, although their accuracy depends on their emissivity models.
Bao’s method uses a near-infrared spectrometer to measure the continuous spectrum and fit it to the ideal blackbody radiation formula. This technique overcomes the difficulties encountered by conventional thermal cameras and thermometers due to the unknown emissivity of targets, revealing significantly higher surface temperatures of photothermal catalysts than those obtained by a buried thermocouple under strong light illumination. This advancement can potentially improve the precision and reliability of thermal imaging, opening up new possibilities for research and industry.
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