Defence & Security FAQs

All Thermoteknix products are designed, manufactured and sold from the UK. They contain no components sourced from the US so there is no ITAR restriction on their sale or supply. For certain countries our cameras and night vision systems do require a UK export license which is usually available in 4 - 6 weeks from application.

Yes, all our cameras have a 12 month warranty as standard, beyond this we can offer extended warranty for 2 and 3 years. We can also provide extended for up to 10 years configured to the customer’s requirements depending on the quantity of cameras being covered, the level of the cover and the amount of local support that can be provided.

The TiCAM range of cameras come with a number of standard lens options and lens extenders. The MicroCAM 3 and MicroCAM 4 range of cameras can be purchased with an extensive range of lenses with their appropriate mounting plates, alternatively if customers have their own lens we can provide advice of options and mounting.

Thermoteknix TiCAM cameras can store up to 60,000 images or up to 12 hours of high quality video.

Yes, The Thermoteknix TiCAM 1000 range of cameras have a range of outputs that can be fed into battle management systems including ATAK. Alternatively we provide ConnectIR which is our own Android application.

C-More is a digital image enhancement tool used in Thermoteknix thermal imaging cameras. It ensures clearer, sharper image in every environment.

What is thermal imaging?

Thermal imaging is a technology for detecting people, animals and any heat-emitting objects such as cars, etc. in the dark.

The lens of the thermal imaging camera focuses the heat (infrared energy) given off by an object onto a detector which is sensitive to heat.

The camera 'translates' the heat into image. Thermal imaging has many applications, including police and law enforcement, defence, surveillance/reconnaissance/border control, search and rescue, etc.

Police and law enforcement use thermal imaging technology to see fugitives hiding in darkness or under the cover of trees, to see if a car is warm which would suggest it had been driven recently or to follow vehicles at night (e.g. from a helicopter).

Small differences in temperature may show if somebody is concealing a weapon or gun under their clothing. Defence forces use thermal imaging devices for seeing in the darkness in combat environments and for general situational awareness. Surveillance/reconnaissance/border control agencies use the technology to see movement or presence of people and/or vehicles.

It is also widely used in maritime environments for the same purpose. Search and rescue teams use thermal imaging cameras to find people lying injured in remote or other areas, in burning buildings or natural disaster zones such as earthquakes or floods. Thermal Imaging will also see through fog and smoke.

Industry uses thermal imaging systems for monitoring high temperature processes such as in boilers, furnaces or kilns. Thermal Imaging is routinely used in the monitoring of cement kilns.

Motorsport, R&D and or scientific organisations use thermal imaging in many applications in this area. Formula 1 and Indycar racing teams, for example, use thermal imaging cameras to monitor the heat of the tyres on their cars in order to optimise traction.

Even NASA has used Thermoteknix thermal imaging cameras to look for water on the moon (and they found it!).

Thermal imaging offers many benefits to the user. Primarily, the technology enables operators to carry out their tasks all over the world under conditions that would otherwise be impossible by enabling them to detect friend and foe in any weather conditions. Thermal imaging can also see through fog and smoke, in thick foliage (jungle, etc.) and inside buildings enhancing situational awareness and shortening decision-making time during missions and operations. In industrial applications thermal imaging can save time and money by detecting anomalies in high-temperature production processes, for example during cement production in a kiln. Thermal imaging also enables scientific research and improves our understanding of the world.

The performance of a thermal imaging camera can be defined using so called Johnson Criteria (the criteria introduced in 1958 by John Johnson, a scientist working for United States Army Night Vision & Electronic Sensors Directorate). They refer to detection, recognition and identification (DRI) of objects. Detection is defined as the ability to distinguish an object from its background. Recognition is defined as the ability to classify the object, for example to determine whether it’s an animal, a human, a vehicle, etc. Identification is defined as the ability to describe the object in details, for example a cat, a woman with a handbag, a 4x4, etc.

The distance in detection, recognition and identification of objects depends on the camera lens. The distances vary hugely, for example TiCAM 90 with 384 x 288 resolution 17μ will Identify a man 44 meters away, whereas TiCAM 1000B with 100mm lens will detect a man 3,922meters away. Please note that Johnson Criteria refer to the ability of an observer to detect the criteria 50% of the time so it should be used as approximate reference only.

Thermal imaging cameras, night vision goggles, fused devices and other sights can have various formats. A monocular unit has one objective lens and one eyepiece as, for example, the Thermoteknix TiCAM 90 Thermal Imaging Monocular. A bi-ocular system has one objective lens and two eyepieces as does NiCAM-7 NVG bi-ocular night vision goggle or the TiCAM 750 thermal imaging system.. A binocular unit has two independent channels (each with its objective lens and eyepiece), such as NiCAM 31 Night Vision Binocular.

Thermoteknix Night Vision systems use auto-gain to control image brightness to adapt to lighting conditions. In some situations it may be more needed than in others, for example in urban environment where the level of light changes frequently.

Thermoteknix thermal imaging cameras feature an automatic gain control facility (auto-gain) and a dedicated feature called 'C-More' in MicroCAM and TiCAM thermal imagers.

Radiometric means 'able to measure temperature'. There are thermal imagers designed for just this purpose whereas non-radiometric thermal imagers may be used for other purposes such as detection. Radiometric thermal imagers have a broad use in industrial applications (process control or monitoring) whereas non-radiometric thermal cameras are largely deployed in the defence and security markets.

Night vision is the ability to see in low light conditions. But the term is also used by the industry to refer to a technology enabling humans to see in the low light conditions. It covers image intensifiers (night vision devices/goggles – NVDs/NVGs) but in broader terms also thermal imagers, fused night vision units, target locator systems and any other devices which enable seeing in the dark/poor light. Thermoteknix manufactures a broad range of night vision goggles, thermal imaging cameras, fused night vision solutions, target locator systems and more. Click here to see our full range of Defence & Security solutions.

Night vision technology allows users to see in almost total darkness giving them an advantage over their enemy in the war field. It increases their mobility as well. It also allows users to identify features and textures of the objects they see.

Night vision is a general term covering any electro-optical device for producing an image in low visible light levels. Usually it does not include thermal imaging which is considered a separate category. Image intensification is the name given to the process of intensifying/amplifying the light available which is required in a night vision device. Typically the process is achieved with an image intensifier tube.

The Gen (short for generation) categorisation of tubes is an American designation and corresponds to distinct changes in the construction of the image intensifier tubes. Whilst the Gen categorisation is a guide to performance of American tubes the situation is less clear with other manufacturers who have taken the earlier generation designs and improved the performance in other ways. Hence the Gen categorisation cannot alone be relied upon as a guide to the performance of the tube and an understanding of the specifications / characteristics is required.

Many factors influence the performance of a night vision device of which the performance of the tube is not even the most significant. The optics, the light levels, the size of the targets and atmospheric conditions all will determine performance.

Fusion is the term used when the image is constructed using different imaging 'modalities', which usually means different wavelengths, in order to preserve the best features of each. For example, thermal imaging works from the radiation emitted from objects (heat glow) which does not require any external illumination. However the images created look fundamentally different from our normal perception of the world which is created by reflected light. Fusing with an intensified image can preserve the best features of both i.e. the 'no light' and 'target detection' performance of thermal imaging with the familiar target appearance of image intensifiers.

Various techniques are used to 'fuse' the different images. They can be combined optically by effectively superimposing both images. Alternatively the images can be combined digitally using image processing techniques and then rendered on an electronic display.

Imaging in different wavelengths can provide different advantages and disadvantages. For example thermal imaging can work in zero light conditions but cannot be used for target identification (the images look fundamentally different). Image intensifiers can be used in low light conditions and produce a recognisable image of an object. If skillfully combined fusion can deliver the best of both worlds. For example, from the same image, a soldier in camouflage may be easily spotted from his bright thermal signature and then identified friend/foe based on the intensified image.

Thermoteknix ClipIR is a small, stand-alone add on device that can be attached to a night vision goggle to adds thermal cues to the intensified image. It can also inject a full thermal image when there is no light at all and the intensifier is defeated. The ClipIR can be removed and attached as required so that the mission envelope is expanded.

Many factors influence the performance of a system including the optics, the light levels, the size of the targets and atmospheric conditions.