US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory and Polaris Sensor Technologies propose to use polarization sensitive thermal camera to find targets camouflaged in natural clutter.
A camera displays the targets (in green) using conventional LWIR thermal imagery (left), raw polarimetric imagery (center), and the combined thermal and polarimetric imagery (right):
Interesting technology, but it only works on reflective (glossy) surfaces. It is also necessary that there was a source of illumination (the sun or clear sky as a reverse contrast). Please note that this video was shot during the day, at night the situation would be radically different. Judging by the intensity of the glow of the car, it is very much warmed up in the sun. On a cold night or in the winter, we can't see. These are not my guesses, but personal experience of testing a polarizing thermal imager.
ReplyDeleteI do confirm that LWIR polarimetric is more than interesting and already out of the R&D lab, actually LWIR polarimetric is considered in both military and commercial application, have a look to our application note:
ReplyDeletehttps://irnova.se/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/irnovaapplication-note-polqwip-v1.0-20191121.pdf
And when using a sensitive QWIP polarimetric detector you keep track of the thermal polarimetric information whatever the operational condition are: https://irnova.se/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/garmlwpolproductleafletv1.pdf
Welcome in the thermal polarimetric dimension