| With so many new technological advances being | | | | of the infrared radiation that your body gives off. |
| introduced to the consumer in the home security | | | | The "infra" part of the name "infrared", actually comes |
| systems market, it can be more then a little difficult to | | | | from the Latin word "infra", which translates directly |
| keep up. So, how does all this stuff work and will it be | | | | into the English word "below". The reason it is used to |
| obsolete in just a few short years? What about all the | | | | describe heat radiation, is because red is the color of |
| crazy names such as "infrared"? What the heck does | | | | visible light with the longest wavelength. |
| it mean anyway? | | | | One way to gain a better picture in your head, is to |
| Of all the equipment that you can buy for your | | | | refer back to the times that you were traveling down |
| business or home security system, the one item that | | | | a long desert highway. Perhaps you can recall looking |
| has fallen most dramatically in cost is the infrared | | | | far ahead down the highway and seeing "blurry |
| security camera. If you think that starting prices of | | | | waves" emanating up off of the hot road and you |
| around $175 is high then be thankful that you didn't | | | | may have called them "heat waves." |
| have to buy them twenty years ago when you | | | | What those were was radiation that was in the |
| couldn't touch an infrared detection camera for less | | | | infrared wavelength. So if you can see heat waves |
| than $5000. | | | | with your eyes in these extreme cases, its not hard to |
| Quite simply, the way that they work is that they see | | | | imagine that a finely calibrated infrared camera would |
| heat radiation instead of common light. So how do | | | | also be able to see them coming off of a persons |
| they do this? The technology that is involved is quite | | | | body. |
| complex but it has to do with the actual wavelengths | | | | |