Infrared cameras set to be used in everyday life

Infrared light is useful for a wide range of applications. However, up to now, expensive electronics were required to use this light, as the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) writes in a press release. In order to capture this light, an electronic amplifier is required. In addition, a screen to display the artificially generated image is also needed. As such, this is not a cheap undertaking: Infrared cameras for industrial use currently cost around 7,000 Swiss francs per unit.

Empa researchers are now seeking to make infrared cameras useful in everyday life. To this end, they are cooperating with colleagues from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Siena in Italy. They have already succeeded in capturing infrared light with a single component and making it visible. The basis for this process essentially involves an OLED screen developed by Empa that consists of just eight layers on a glass surface. The researchers are now looking for an industrial partner for implementation purposes. At the same time, the sensitivity of the module is being further refined.

With this solution developed by the researchers, infrared cameras could become “useful everyday objects”, the press release states. Infrared light makes moist objects appear darker, which could well prove to be useful for sorting coffee beans or black olives, for example, with stones and metal objects as impurities shining brightly among the dark (moist) fruit on a conveyor belt. Moreover, mechanics could also use infrared light to see the heat of a soldering tip at a glance, while fruit merchants would be able to detect damaged produce before the rotting process has even started.