Trying to See Through Materials with an Infrared Camera

This video was made a while ago with a long-wave infrared camera. The idea was to see if a person (i.e. body heat) would show up using the infrared camera if there was something instead of open air between the two. A lot of science fiction suggested that it could probably be done. But instead of a wall of concrete, brick, drywall, or wood like one would find in a building, a comparatively thin and porous fabric curtain was used instead. Things didn't seem to work out that well.


Infrared, Legs, and a Curtain

Plastic Garbage Bags
A similar thing was then done with black, plastic garbage bags. The results were a bit more interesting, so another video expanding on the previous one was done. This one focused on how many garbage bag layers would still produce results. Playing with the range or other settings of the camera would probably have helped narrow things down, but that would have taken more than the target 30 seconds in the video.

More Materials
It was decided that a bunch of random materials would be looked at in a similar manner. These videos were shot in visible light with the focus on the LCD on the back of the infrared camera. Aside from the glare on the screen, they came out reasonably well. And the visible light helped to provide a dual perspective on what was actually going on.

Infared versus Videos
Wood
Paper
Glasses
Fabric
Cardboard
Glass

And that's a whole new batch of infrared videos. Might be time to pick up that sun visor accessory thing to lower the glare...

Reminder: Temperatures are not accurate.