ABSTRACT
Traditionally, infrared (IR) technologies are connected with controlling functions and nightvision problems with earlier applications connected simply with detection of IR radiation, and later by forming IR images from temperature and emissive differences (systems for recognition and surveillance, tank sight systems, anti-tank missiles, air-air missiles, etc.). Most of the funding has been provided to fulll military needs, but peaceful applications have increased continuously, especially since the last decade of the twentieth century (see Figure 1.1). It is predicted currently that the commercial market is about 70% in volume and 40% in value, largely connected with volume production of uncooled imagers [1]. These include medical, industry, earth resources, and energy conservation applications. Medical applications include thermography in which IR scans of the body detect cancers or other trauma, which raise the body surface temperature. Earth resource determinations are done by using IR images from satellites in conjunction with eld observation for calibration (in this manner, e.g., the area and content of elds and forests can be determined). In some cases even the health state of a crop is determined from space. Energy conservation in homes and industry has been aided by the use of IR scans to determine the points of maximum heat loss. Demands for these technologies are quickly growing due to their effective applications, for example, in global monitoring of environmental pollution and climate changes, longtime prognoses of agriculture crop yield, chemical process monitoring, Fourier transform IR spectroscopy, IR astronomy, car driving, IR imaging in medical diagnostics, and others.
