The heat is on
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The military has used thermal imaging for years, but could this technology be successfully marketed to the road transport industry to reduce accidents? We put a thermal imaging system from Brigade Electronics to the test to find out.
Words: Colin Barnett, Kevin Swallow and Brian Weatherley / Images: Tom Cunningham
Cameras installed on vehicles are quite commonplace in the construction and emergency services. For example, hauliers working in the construction sector use cameras to help prevent potential pitfalls when trucks are reversing, and quarries demand them as part of their health and safety requirements.
While blind spots are the focus of current European Union legislation, the use of cameras is hardly widespread across road transport In time, bodies such as the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), and vehicle insurance companies. will demand they be fitted on all heavy commercial vehicles The road transport industry could take some direction from the emergency services and the military, which use cameras proactively. Ambulances and fire engines monitor the incidents that they attend, while the police use cameras to record errant motorists and suspects hotfooting it from crime scenes, as well as using heat-sensing cameras on helicopters to help enforce the law.
The armed forces use cameras as an alternative to driving with their lights on in darkness while crossing hostile territories. By detecting differences in ambient temperature, images appear in a ghost-like form on the monitor.
All well and good but this type of camera kit doesn't come cheap. The FUR Systems-built PathFindIR thermal imaging camera, marketed in the UK by Kent-based Brigade Electronics, will cost you £3,600 With margins as tight as they are at the moment, operators aren't likely to go rushing out to pick one up as soon as they have finished reading this feature. However, to date, Brigade Electronics has sold more than 20 systems into the construction and car markets, as well as to the University of Dublin for research and development. •