Thermal Imaging in Smart Applications

Abstract

Temperature measurement is an essential requirement for a large number of smart applications in medicine, agriculture, environment, and security domains, to name but a few. Conventionally, temperature measurements are mostly performed using thermometers, thermocouples, thermistors, and resistance temperature detectors. Most of these instruments require physical contact with the object to measure temperature at specific points. Infrared thermography has revolutionized the concept of temperature measurement. Infrared thermal imaging (IRTI) can provide the temperature mapping without a physical contact with the object of interest from a reasonable distance. A typical IRTI system comprises of a thermal camera equipped with infrared detector, a signal processing unit and an image acquisition system, usually in the form of an embedded system. Such cameras are utilized for applications like fault detection, irrigation management, motion detection, etc. This chapter briefly introduces use of thermal imaging in medicine, agriculture, environment, smart home/cities and security applications.