Infrared ( IR ; sometimes called infrared light ) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves . The infrared spectral band begins with waves that are just longer than those of red light (the longest waves in the visible spectrum ), so IR is invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to include wavelengths from around 750 nm (400 THz ) to 1 mm (300 GHz ). IR is commonly divided between longer-wavelength thermal IR, emitted from terrestrial sources, and shorter-wavelength IR or near-IR, part of the solar spectrum . Longer IR wavelengths (30–100 μm) are sometimes included as part of the terahertz radiation band. Almost all black-body radiation from objects near room temperature is in the IR band. As a form of electromagnetic radiation, IR carries energy and momentum , exerts radiation pressure , and has properties corresponding to both those of a wave and of a particle , the photon .
111-717: The Planetary Fourier Spectrometer ( PFS ) is an infrared spectrometer built by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (Italian National Institute for Astrophysics) along with the Istituto di Fisica dello spazio Interplanetario and the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italian National Research Council). The instrument is currently used by the European Space Agency on both the Mars Express Mission and
222-471: A passive missile guidance system , which uses the emission from a target of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared part of the spectrum to track it. Missiles that use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared (IR) is just below the visible spectrum of light in frequency and is radiated strongly by hot bodies. Many objects such as people, vehicle engines, and aircraft generate and retain heat, and as such, are especially visible in
333-517: A thermographic camera , with the fundamental difference that each pixel contains a full LWIR spectrum. Consequently, chemical identification of the object can be performed without a need for an external light source such as the Sun or the Moon. Such cameras are typically applied for geological measurements, outdoor surveillance and UAV applications. In infrared photography , infrared filters are used to capture
444-561: A $ 350 million grant towards the development of the Domain Awareness System , which is an interconnected system of sensors including 18,000 CCTV cameras used for continual surveillance of the city by both police officers and artificial intelligence systems . In the United Kingdom , the vast majority of video surveillance cameras are not operated by government bodies, but by private individuals or companies, especially to monitor
555-554: A bank machine, payment by credit card, use of a phone card, call from home, checked out library book, rented video, or otherwise complete recorded transaction generates an electronic record. Public records—such as birth, court, tax and other records—are increasingly being digitized and made available online. In addition, due to laws like CALEA , web traffic and online purchases are also available for profiling. Electronic record-keeping makes data easily collectable, storable, and accessible—so that high-volume, efficient aggregation and analysis
666-705: A centralized database and monitoring station, which will, upon completion of the project, contain a picture of the face of every person in China: over 1.3 billion people. Lin Jiang Huai, the head of China's "Information Security Technology" office (which is in charge of the project), credits the surveillance systems in the United States and the U.K. as the inspiration for what he is doing with the Golden Shield Project. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
777-600: A chemical and electrical process and then converted back into visible light. Infrared light sources can be used to augment the available ambient light for conversion by night vision devices, increasing in-the-dark visibility without actually using a visible light source. The use of infrared light and night vision devices should not be confused with thermal imaging , which creates images based on differences in surface temperature by detecting infrared radiation ( heat ) that emanates from objects and their surrounding environment. Infrared radiation can be used to remotely determine
888-471: A common belief that monitoring can increase productivity, it can also create consequences such as increasing chances of deviant behavior and creating punishments that are not equitable to their actions. Additionally, monitoring can cause resistance and backlash because it insinuates an employer's suspicion and lack of trust. Data mining is the application of statistical techniques and programmatic algorithms to discover previously unnoticed relationships within
999-450: A complex mathematical algorithm that is unique to an individual phone, and is inaccessible to Apple. The encryption feature on the iPhone 6 has drawn criticism from FBI director James B. Comey and other law enforcement officials since even lawful requests to access user content on the iPhone 6 will result in Apple supplying "gibberish" data that requires law enforcement personnel to either break
1110-476: A continuous sequence of weather to be studied. These infrared pictures can depict ocean eddies or vortices and map currents such as the Gulf Stream, which are valuable to the shipping industry. Fishermen and farmers are interested in knowing land and water temperatures to protect their crops against frost or increase their catch from the sea. Even El Niño phenomena can be spotted. Using color-digitized techniques,
1221-677: A database known as " Pinwale ", which stores and indexes large numbers of emails of both American citizens and foreigners. Additionally, the NSA runs a program known as PRISM , which is a data mining system that gives the United States government direct access to information from technology companies . Through accessing this information, the government is able to obtain search history, emails, stored information, live chats, file transfers, and more. This program generated huge controversies in regards to surveillance and privacy, especially from U.S. citizens. The official and unofficial tapping of telephone lines
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#17330928093341332-499: A distance by means of electronic equipment, such as closed-circuit television (CCTV), or interception of electronically transmitted information like Internet traffic . Increasingly, governments may also obtain consumer data through the purchase of online information, effectively expanding surveillance capabilities through commercially available digital records. It can also include simple technical methods, such as human intelligence gathering and postal interception . Surveillance
1443-411: A form of surveillance. A byproduct of surveillance is that it can unjustifiably violate people's privacy and is often criticized by civil liberties activists. Democracies may have laws that seek to restrict governmental and private use of surveillance, whereas authoritarian governments seldom have any domestic restrictions. Espionage is by definition covert and typically illegal according to
1554-413: A mobile phone (and thus the person carrying it) can be determined easily even when the phone is not being used, using a technique known as multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a signal to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone. The legality of such techniques has been questioned in the United States, in particular whether a court warrant
1665-467: A molecule through a change in the dipole moment , making it a useful frequency range for study of these energy states for molecules of the proper symmetry. Infrared spectroscopy examines absorption and transmission of photons in the infrared range. Infrared radiation is used in industrial, scientific, military, commercial, and medical applications. Night-vision devices using active near-infrared illumination allow people or animals to be observed without
1776-403: A molecule vibrates at a frequency characteristic of that bond. A group of atoms in a molecule (e.g., CH 2 ) may have multiple modes of oscillation caused by the stretching and bending motions of the group as a whole. If an oscillation leads to a change in dipole in the molecule then it will absorb a photon that has the same frequency. The vibrational frequencies of most molecules correspond to
1887-431: A more emissive one. For that reason, incorrect selection of emissivity and not accounting for environmental temperatures will give inaccurate results when using infrared cameras and pyrometers. Infrared is used in night vision equipment when there is insufficient visible light to see. Night vision devices operate through a process involving the conversion of ambient light photons into electrons that are then amplified by
1998-463: A near-IR laser may thus appear dim red and can present a hazard since it may actually be quite bright. Even IR at wavelengths up to 1,050 nm from pulsed lasers can be seen by humans under certain conditions. A commonly used subdivision scheme is: NIR and SWIR together is sometimes called "reflected infrared", whereas MWIR and LWIR is sometimes referred to as "thermal infrared". The International Commission on Illumination (CIE) recommended
2109-413: A person's emotional state based on an analysis of their facial expressions, how fast they are talking, the tone and pitch of their voice, their posture, and other behavioral traits. This might be used for instance to see if a person's behavior is suspect (looking around furtively, "tense" or "angry" facial expressions, waving arms, etc.). A more recent development is DNA profiling , which looks at some of
2220-598: A person's facial features to accurately identify them, usually from surveillance video. Both the Department of Homeland Security and DARPA are heavily funding research into facial recognition systems. The Information Processing Technology Office ran a program known as Human Identification at a Distance which developed technologies that are capable of identifying a person at up to 500 ft (150 m) by their facial features. Another form of behavioral biometrics, based on affective computing , involves computers recognizing
2331-666: A searchable database , and by video analysis software (such as VIRAT and HumanID ). The amount of footage is also drastically reduced by motion sensors which record only when motion is detected. With cheaper production techniques, surveillance cameras are simple and inexpensive enough to be used in home security systems, and for everyday surveillance. Video cameras are one of the most common methods of surveillance. As of 2016, there are about 350 million surveillance cameras worldwide. About 65% of these cameras are installed in Asia. The growth of CCTV has been slowing in recent years. In 2018, China
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#17330928093342442-427: A spectrum of wavelengths, but sometimes only a limited region of the spectrum is of interest because sensors usually collect radiation only within a specific bandwidth. Thermal infrared radiation also has a maximum emission wavelength, which is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature of object, in accordance with Wien's displacement law . The infrared band is often subdivided into smaller sections, although how
2553-405: A worldwide scale, this cooling method has been proposed as a way to slow and even reverse global warming , with some estimates proposing a global surface area coverage of 1-2% to balance global heat fluxes. IR data transmission is also employed in short-range communication among computer peripherals and personal digital assistants . These devices usually conform to standards published by IrDA ,
2664-411: Is a property of a surface that describes how its thermal emissions deviate from the ideal of a black body . To further explain, two objects at the same physical temperature may not show the same infrared image if they have differing emissivity. For example, for any pre-set emissivity value, objects with higher emissivity will appear hotter, and those with a lower emissivity will appear cooler (assuming, as
2775-401: Is a technology that measures and analyzes human physical and/or behavioral characteristics for authentication, identification, or screening purposes. Examples of physical characteristics include fingerprints, DNA, and facial patterns. Examples of mostly behavioral characteristics include gait (a person's manner of walking) or voice. Facial recognition is the use of the unique configuration of
2886-478: Is able to install software, such as the FBI's Magic Lantern and CIPAV , on a computer system, they can easily gain unauthorized access to this data. Such software could be installed physically or remotely. Another form of computer surveillance, known as van Eck phreaking , involves reading electromagnetic emanations from computing devices in order to extract data from them at distances of hundreds of meters. The NSA runs
2997-451: Is absorbed then re-radiated at longer wavelengths. Visible light or ultraviolet-emitting lasers can char paper and incandescently hot objects emit visible radiation. Objects at room temperature will emit radiation concentrated mostly in the 8 to 25 μm band, but this is not distinct from the emission of visible light by incandescent objects and ultraviolet by even hotter objects (see black body and Wien's displacement law ). Heat
3108-426: Is also a technique called ' T-ray ' imaging, which is imaging using far-infrared or terahertz radiation . Lack of bright sources can make terahertz photography more challenging than most other infrared imaging techniques. Recently T-ray imaging has been of considerable interest due to a number of new developments such as terahertz time-domain spectroscopy . Infrared tracking, also known as infrared homing, refers to
3219-590: Is an example of such a network. One common form of surveillance is to create maps of social networks based on data from social networking sites such as Facebook , MySpace , Twitter as well as from traffic analysis information from phone call records such as those in the NSA call database , and others. These social network "maps" are then data mined to extract useful information such as personal interests, friendships & affiliations, wants, beliefs, thoughts, and activities. Many U.S. government agencies such as
3330-430: Is associated with spectra far above the infrared, extending into visible, ultraviolet, and even X-ray regions (e.g. the solar corona ). Thus, the popular association of infrared radiation with thermal radiation is only a coincidence based on typical (comparatively low) temperatures often found near the surface of planet Earth. The concept of emissivity is important in understanding the infrared emissions of objects. This
3441-436: Is being continually replenished by some unidentified volcanic or geologic process, or that some kind of extremophile life form similar to some existing on Earth is metabolising carbon dioxide and hydrogen and producing methane. In July 2004, rumours began to circulate that Formisano would announce the discovery of ammonia at an upcoming conference. It later came to light that none had been found; in fact some noted that
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3552-533: Is being researched as an aid for visually impaired people through the Remote infrared audible signage project. Transmitting IR data from one device to another is sometimes referred to as beaming . IR is sometimes used for assistive audio as an alternative to an audio induction loop . Infrared vibrational spectroscopy (see also near-infrared spectroscopy ) is a technique that can be used to identify molecules by analysis of their constituent bonds. Each chemical bond in
3663-485: Is classified as part of optical astronomy . To form an image, the components of an infrared telescope need to be carefully shielded from heat sources, and the detectors are chilled using liquid helium . The sensitivity of Earth-based infrared telescopes is significantly limited by water vapor in the atmosphere, which absorbs a portion of the infrared radiation arriving from space outside of selected atmospheric windows . This limitation can be partially alleviated by placing
3774-423: Is counted as part of the microwave band, not infrared, moving the band edge of infrared to 0.1 mm (3 THz). Sunlight , at an effective temperature of 5,780 K (5,510 °C, 9,940 °F), is composed of near-thermal-spectrum radiation that is slightly more than half infrared. At zenith , sunlight provides an irradiance of just over 1 kW per square meter at sea level. Of this energy, 527 W
3885-456: Is defined (according to different standards) at various values typically between 700 nm and 800 nm, but the boundary between visible and infrared light is not precisely defined. The human eye is markedly less sensitive to light above 700 nm wavelength, so longer wavelengths make insignificant contributions to scenes illuminated by common light sources. Particularly intense near-IR light (e.g., from lasers , LEDs or bright daylight with
3996-575: Is efficiently detected by inexpensive silicon photodiodes , which the receiver uses to convert the detected radiation to an electric current . That electrical signal is passed through a high-pass filter which retains the rapid pulsations due to the IR transmitter but filters out slowly changing infrared radiation from ambient light. Infrared communications are useful for indoor use in areas of high population density. IR does not penetrate walls and so does not interfere with other devices in adjoining rooms. Infrared
4107-491: Is energy in transit that flows due to a temperature difference. Unlike heat transmitted by thermal conduction or thermal convection , thermal radiation can propagate through a vacuum . Thermal radiation is characterized by a particular spectrum of many wavelengths that are associated with emission from an object, due to the vibration of its molecules at a given temperature. Thermal radiation can be emitted from objects at any wavelength, and at very high temperatures such radiation
4218-552: Is especially useful since some radiation at these wavelengths can escape into space through the atmosphere's infrared window . This is how passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) surfaces are able to achieve sub-ambient cooling temperatures under direct solar intensity, enhancing terrestrial heat flow to outer space with zero energy consumption or pollution . PDRC surfaces maximize shortwave solar reflectance to lessen heat gain while maintaining strong longwave infrared (LWIR) thermal radiation heat transfer . When imagined on
4329-623: Is far too much data on the Internet for human investigators to manually search through all of it. Therefore, automated Internet surveillance computers sift through the vast amount of intercepted Internet traffic to identify and report to human investigators the traffic that is considered interesting or suspicious. This process is regulated by targeting certain "trigger" words or phrases, visiting certain types of web sites, or communicating via email or online chat with suspicious individuals or groups. Billions of dollars per year are spent by agencies, such as
4440-544: Is funding a research project called Combat Zones That See that will link up cameras across a city to a centralized monitoring station, identify and track individuals and vehicles as they move through the city, and report "suspicious" activity (such as waving arms, looking side-to-side, standing in a group, etc.). At Super Bowl XXXV in January 2001, police in Tampa, Florida, used Identix's facial recognition software, FaceIt, to scan
4551-676: Is infrared radiation, 445 W is visible light, and 32 W is ultraviolet radiation. Nearly all the infrared radiation in sunlight is near infrared, shorter than 4 μm. On the surface of Earth, at far lower temperatures than the surface of the Sun, some thermal radiation consists of infrared in the mid-infrared region, much longer than in sunlight. Black-body, or thermal, radiation is continuous: it radiates at all wavelengths. Of these natural thermal radiation processes, only lightning and natural fires are hot enough to produce much visible energy, and fires produce far more infrared than visible-light energy. In general, objects emit infrared radiation across
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4662-405: Is installing automated facial recognition and license plate recognition devices in its squad cars, and providing handheld face scanners, which officers will use to identify people while on patrol. Facial thermographs are in development, which allow machines to identify certain emotions in people such as fear or stress, by measuring the temperature generated by blood flow to different parts of
4773-403: Is no universally accepted definition of the range of infrared radiation. Typically, it is taken to extend from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum at 780 nm to 1 mm. This range of wavelengths corresponds to a frequency range of approximately 430 THz down to 300 GHz. Beyond infrared is the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum . Increasingly, terahertz radiation
4884-457: Is often the case, that the surrounding environment is cooler than the objects being viewed). When an object has less than perfect emissivity, it obtains properties of reflectivity and/or transparency, and so the temperature of the surrounding environment is partially reflected by and/or transmitted through the object. If the object were in a hotter environment, then a lower emissivity object at the same temperature would likely appear to be hotter than
4995-530: Is one of the primary parameters studied in research into global warming , together with solar radiation . A pyrgeometer is utilized in this field of research to perform continuous outdoor measurements. This is a broadband infrared radiometer with sensitivity for infrared radiation between approximately 4.5 μm and 50 μm. Astronomers observe objects in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum using optical components, including mirrors, lenses and solid state digital detectors. For this reason it
5106-545: Is reflected and emitted by the planet. In March 2004, Professor Vittorio Formisano , the researcher in charge of the Mars Express Planetary Fourier Spectrometer, announced the discovery of methane in the Martian atmosphere. However, methane cannot persist in the Martian atmosphere for more than a few hundred years since it can be broken down by sunlight. Thus, this discovery suggests that the methane
5217-404: Is required. Records for one carrier alone (Sprint), showed that in a given year federal law enforcement agencies requested customer location data 8 million times. In response to customers' privacy concerns in the post Edward Snowden era, Apple's iPhone 6 has been designed to disrupt investigative wiretapping efforts. The phone encrypts e-mails, contacts, and photos with a code generated by
5328-464: Is that low clouds such as stratus or fog can have a temperature similar to the surrounding land or sea surface and do not show up. However, using the difference in brightness of the IR4 channel (10.3–11.5 μm) and the near-infrared channel (1.58–1.64 μm), low clouds can be distinguished, producing a fog satellite picture. The main advantage of infrared is that images can be produced at night, allowing
5439-519: Is that the IR energy heats only opaque objects, such as food, rather than the air around them. Infrared heating is also becoming more popular in industrial manufacturing processes, e.g. curing of coatings, forming of plastics, annealing, plastic welding, and print drying. In these applications, infrared heaters replace convection ovens and contact heating. A variety of technologies or proposed technologies take advantage of infrared emissions to cool buildings or other systems. The LWIR (8–15 μm) region
5550-438: Is the dominant band for long-distance telecommunications networks . The S and L bands are based on less well established technology, and are not as widely deployed. Infrared radiation is popularly known as "heat radiation", but light and electromagnetic waves of any frequency will heat surfaces that absorb them. Infrared light from the Sun accounts for 49% of the heating of Earth, with the rest being caused by visible light that
5661-399: Is the monitoring of a person or group's behavior by a corporation. The data collected is most often used for marketing purposes or sold to other corporations, but is also regularly shared with government agencies. It can be used as a form of business intelligence , which enables the corporation to better tailor their products and/or services to be desirable by their customers. Although there is
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#17330928093345772-402: Is the most common way for remote controls to command appliances. Infrared remote control protocols like RC-5 , SIRC , are used to communicate with infrared. Free-space optical communication using infrared lasers can be a relatively inexpensive way to install a communications link in an urban area operating at up to 4 gigabit/s, compared to the cost of burying fiber optic cable, except for
5883-520: Is the spectroscopic wavenumber . It is the frequency divided by the speed of light in vacuum. In the semiconductor industry, infrared light can be used to characterize materials such as thin films and periodic trench structures. By measuring the reflectance of light from the surface of a semiconductor wafer, the index of refraction (n) and the extinction Coefficient (k) can be determined via the Forouhi–Bloomer dispersion equations . The reflectance from
5994-404: Is typically in the range 10.3–12.5 μm (IR4 and IR5 channels). Clouds with high and cold tops, such as cyclones or cumulonimbus clouds , are often displayed as red or black, lower warmer clouds such as stratus or stratocumulus are displayed as blue or grey, with intermediate clouds shaded accordingly. Hot land surfaces are shown as dark-grey or black. One disadvantage of infrared imagery
6105-558: Is used by citizens, for instance for protecting their neighborhoods. It is widely used by governments for intelligence gathering, including espionage, prevention of crime, the protection of a process, person, group or object, or the investigation of crime. It is also used by criminal organizations to plan and commit crimes, and by businesses to gather intelligence on criminals, their competitors, suppliers or customers. Religious organizations charged with detecting heresy and heterodoxy may also carry out surveillance. Auditors carry out
6216-661: Is widespread. In the United States for instance, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) requires that all telephone and VoIP communications be available for real-time wiretapping by Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Two major telecommunications companies in the U.S.— AT&T Inc. and Verizon —have contracts with the FBI, requiring them to keep their phone call records easily searchable and accessible for Federal agencies, in return for $ 1.8 million per year. Between 2003 and 2005,
6327-522: Is working on plans to build up a fleet of surveillance UAVs ranging from micro-aerial vehicles to full-size drones , to be used by police forces throughout the U.K. In addition to their surveillance capabilities, MAVs are capable of carrying tasers for " crowd control ", or weapons for killing enemy combatants. Programs such as the Heterogeneous Aerial Reconnaissance Team program developed by DARPA have automated much of
6438-701: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are investing heavily in research involving social network analysis. The intelligence community believes that the biggest threat to U.S. power comes from decentralized, leaderless, geographically dispersed groups of terrorists , subversives , extremists , and dissidents . These types of threats are most easily countered by finding important nodes in
6549-580: The Information Awareness Office , or companies such as Verint , and Narus , which search for certain words or phrases, to decide whether to dedicate a human agent to the call. Law enforcement and intelligence services in the United Kingdom and the United States possess technology to activate the microphones in cell phones remotely, by accessing phones' diagnostic or maintenance features in order to listen to conversations that take place near
6660-563: The NSA has been taking advantage of this ambiguity in the law by collecting metadata on "at least hundreds of millions" of "incidental" targets from around the world. The NSA uses an analytic tool known as CO-TRAVELER in order to track people whose movements intersect and to find any hidden connections with persons of interest. The Snowden leaks have also revealed that the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) can access information collected by
6771-455: The NSA , the FBI and the now-defunct Information Awareness Office , to develop, purchase, implement, and operate systems such as Carnivore , NarusInsight , and ECHELON to intercept and analyze all of this data to extract only the information which is useful to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Computers can be a surveillance target because of the personal data stored on them. If someone
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#17330928093346882-461: The NSA call database , and extract "communities of interest"—groups of people who call each other regularly, or groups that regularly visit certain sites on the Internet. AT&T originally built the system to develop "marketing leads", but the FBI has regularly requested such information from phone companies such as AT&T without a warrant, and, after using the data, stores all information received in its own databases, regardless of whether or not
6993-463: The Venus Express Mission. It consists of four units which together weigh around 31.4 kg, including a pointing device, a power supply, a control unit, and an interferometer with electronics. The main objective of the instrument is to provide temperature profiles of Mars's carbon dioxide atmosphere, and to the study composition of the planet's atmosphere through the infrared radiation that
7104-611: The 1950s. The United States Department of Homeland Security is in the process of testing UAVs to patrol the skies over the United States for the purposes of critical infrastructure protection , border patrol, " transit monitoring ", and general surveillance of the U.S. population. Miami-Dade police department ran tests with a vertical take-off and landing UAV from Honeywell , which is planned to be used in SWAT operations. Houston's police department has been testing fixed-wing UAVs for use in "traffic control". The United Kingdom , as well,
7215-478: The FBI sent out more than 140,000 " National Security Letters " ordering phone companies to hand over information about their customers' calling and Internet histories. About half of these letters requested information on U.S. citizens. Human agents are not required to monitor most calls. Speech-to-text software creates machine-readable text from intercepted audio, which is then processed by automated call-analysis programs, such as those developed by agencies such as
7326-535: The IR spectrum is thereby divided varies between different areas in which IR is employed. Infrared radiation is generally considered to begin with wavelengths longer than visible by the human eye. There is no hard wavelength limit to what is visible, as the eye's sensitivity decreases rapidly but smoothly, for wavelengths exceeding about 700 nm. Therefore wavelengths just longer than that can be seen if they are sufficiently bright, though they may still be classified as infrared according to usual definitions. Light from
7437-477: The Infrared Data Association. Remote controls and IrDA devices use infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to emit infrared radiation that may be concentrated by a lens into a beam that the user aims at the detector. The beam is modulated , i.e. switched on and off, according to a code which the receiver interprets. Usually very near-IR is used (below 800 nm) for practical reasons. This wavelength
7548-486: The Metropolitan Police Department, so they could perform "day-to-day monitoring". The development of centralized networks of CCTV cameras watching public areas—linked to computer databases of people's pictures and identity ( biometric data), able to track people's movements throughout the city, and identify whom they have been with—has been argued by some to present a risk to civil liberties . Trapwire
7659-706: The NSA on American citizens. Once the data has been collected, the GCHQ can hold on to it for up to two years. The deadline can be extended with the permission of a "senior UK official". Surveillance cameras, or security cameras, are video cameras used for the purpose of observing an area. They are often connected to a recording device or IP network , and may be watched by a security guard or law enforcement officer . Cameras and recording equipment used to be relatively expensive and required human personnel to monitor camera footage, but analysis of footage has been made easier by automated software that organizes digital video footage into
7770-449: The PFS was not precise enough to distinguish ammonia from carbon dioxide anyway. Infrared It was long known that fires emit invisible heat ; in 1681 the pioneering experimenter Edme Mariotte showed that glass, though transparent to sunlight, obstructed radiant heat. In 1800 the astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered that infrared radiation is a type of invisible radiation in
7881-581: The UK at 4.2 million (of which 500,000 were in Greater London ). More reliable estimates put the number of private and local government operated cameras in the United Kingdom at around 1.85 million in 2011. In the Netherlands, one example city where there are cameras is The Hague. There, cameras are placed in city districts in which the most illegal activity is concentrated. Examples are the red-light districts and
7992-412: The aerial surveillance process. They have developed systems consisting of large teams drone planes that pilot themselves, automatically decide who is "suspicious" and how to go about monitoring them, coordinate their activities with other drones nearby, and notify human operators if something suspicious is occurring. This greatly increases the amount of area that can be continuously monitored, while reducing
8103-459: The city of Chicago , Illinois, recently used a $ 5.1 million Homeland Security grant to install an additional 250 surveillance cameras, and connect them to a centralized monitoring center, along with its preexisting network of over 2000 cameras, in a program known as Operation Virtual Shield . Speaking in 2009, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced that Chicago would have a surveillance camera on every street corner by 2016. New York City received
8214-575: The code themselves or to get the code from the phone's owner. Because the Snowden leaks demonstrated that American agencies can access phones anywhere in the world, privacy concerns in countries with growing markets for smart phones have intensified, providing a strong incentive for companies like Apple to address those concerns in order to secure their position in the global market. Apple has made several moves to emphasize their concern for privacy, in order to appeal to more consumers. In 2011, Apple stopped
8325-421: The context of automatic decision-making. Aerial surveillance is the gathering of surveillance, usually visual imagery or video, from an airborne vehicle—such as an unmanned aerial vehicle , helicopter , or spy plane . Military surveillance aircraft use a range of sensors (e.g. radar) to monitor the battlefield. Digital imaging technology, miniaturized computers, and numerous other technological advances over
8436-465: The crowd for potential criminals and terrorists in attendance at the event (it found 19 people with pending arrest warrants). Governments often initially claim that cameras are meant to be used for traffic control , but many of them end up using them for general surveillance. For example, Washington, D.C. had 5,000 "traffic" cameras installed under this premise, and then after they were all in place, networked them all together and then granted access to
8547-599: The data. Data profiling in this context is the process of assembling information about a particular individual or group in order to generate a profile — that is, a picture of their patterns and behavior. Data profiling can be an extremely powerful tool for psychological and social network analysis . A skilled analyst can discover facts about a person that they might not even be consciously aware of themselves. Economic (such as credit card purchases) and social (such as telephone calls and emails) transactions in modern society create large amounts of stored data and records. In
8658-539: The division of infrared radiation into the following three bands: ISO 20473 specifies the following scheme: Astronomers typically divide the infrared spectrum as follows: These divisions are not precise and can vary depending on the publication. The three regions are used for observation of different temperature ranges, and hence different environments in space. The most common photometric system used in astronomy allocates capital letters to different spectral regions according to filters used; I, J, H, and K cover
8769-469: The eye is given a moment to adjust to the extremely dim image coming through a visually opaque IR-passing photographic filter, it is possible to see the Wood effect that consists of IR-glowing foliage. In optical communications , the part of the infrared spectrum that is used is divided into seven bands based on availability of light sources, transmitting/absorbing materials (fibers), and detectors: The C-band
8880-942: The face. Law enforcement officers believe that this has potential for them to identify when a suspect is nervous, which might indicate that they are hiding something, lying, or worried about something. In his paper in Ethics and Information Technology , Avi Marciano maps the harms caused by biometric surveillance, traces their theoretical origins, and brings these harms together in one integrative framework to elucidate their cumulative power. Marciano proposes four types of harms: Unauthorized use of bodily information, denial or limitation of access to physical spaces, bodily social sorting, and symbolic ineligibility through construction of marginality and otherness. Biometrics' social power, according to Marciano, derives from three main features: their complexity as "enigmatic technologies", their objective-scientific image, and their increasing agency, particularly in
8991-499: The frequencies of infrared light. Typically, the technique is used to study organic compounds using light radiation from the mid-infrared, 4,000–400 cm . A spectrum of all the frequencies of absorption in a sample is recorded. This can be used to gain information about the sample composition in terms of chemical groups present and also its purity (for example, a wet sample will show a broad O-H absorption around 3200 cm ). The unit for expressing radiation in this application, cm ,
9102-533: The gray-shaded thermal images can be converted to color for easier identification of desired information. The main water vapour channel at 6.40 to 7.08 μm can be imaged by some weather satellites and shows the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. In the field of climatology, atmospheric infrared radiation is monitored to detect trends in the energy exchange between the Earth and the atmosphere. These trends provide information on long-term changes in Earth's climate. It
9213-513: The information was ever useful in an investigation. Some people believe that the use of social networking sites is a form of "participatory surveillance", where users of these sites are essentially performing surveillance on themselves, putting detailed personal information on public websites where it can be viewed by corporations and governments. In 2008, about 20% of employers reported using social networking sites to collect personal data on prospective or current employees. Biometric surveillance
9324-411: The infrared light can also be used to determine the critical dimension, depth, and sidewall angle of high aspect ratio trench structures. Weather satellites equipped with scanning radiometers produce thermal or infrared images, which can then enable a trained analyst to determine cloud heights and types, to calculate land and surface water temperatures, and to locate ocean surface features. The scanning
9435-496: The infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum (roughly 9,000–14,000 nm or 9–14 μm) and produce images of that radiation. Since infrared radiation is emitted by all objects based on their temperatures, according to the black-body radiation law, thermography makes it possible to "see" one's environment with or without visible illumination. The amount of radiation emitted by an object increases with temperature, therefore thermography allows one to see variations in temperature (hence
9546-412: The infrared wavelengths of light compared to objects in the background. Infrared radiation can be used as a deliberate heating source. For example, it is used in infrared saunas to heat the occupants. It may also be used in other heating applications, such as to remove ice from the wings of aircraft (de-icing). Infrared radiation is used in cooking, known as broiling or grilling . One energy advantage
9657-421: The interiors of shops and businesses. According to 2011 Freedom of Information Act requests, the total number of local government operated CCTV cameras was around 52,000 over the entirety of the UK. The prevalence of video surveillance in the UK is often overstated due to unreliable estimates being requoted; for example one report in 2002 extrapolated from a very small sample to estimate the number of cameras in
9768-448: The major markers in the body's DNA to produce a match. The FBI is spending $ 1 billion to build a new biometric database, which will store DNA, facial recognition data, iris/retina (eye) data, fingerprints, palm prints, and other biometric data of people living in the United States. The computers running the database are contained in an underground facility about the size of two American football fields . The Los Angeles Police Department
9879-438: The name). A hyperspectral image is a "picture" containing continuous spectrum through a wide spectral range at each pixel. Hyperspectral imaging is gaining importance in the field of applied spectroscopy particularly with NIR, SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR spectral regions. Typical applications include biological, mineralogical, defence, and industrial measurements. Thermal infrared hyperspectral imaging can be similarly performed using
9990-405: The near-infrared spectrum. Digital cameras often use infrared blockers . Cheaper digital cameras and camera phones have less effective filters and can view intense near-infrared, appearing as a bright purple-white color. This is especially pronounced when taking pictures of subjects near IR-bright areas (such as near a lamp), where the resulting infrared interference can wash out the image. There
10101-446: The near-infrared wavelengths; L, M, N, and Q refer to the mid-infrared region. These letters are commonly understood in reference to atmospheric windows and appear, for instance, in the titles of many papers . A third scheme divides up the band based on the response of various detectors: Near-infrared is the region closest in wavelength to the radiation detectable by the human eye. mid- and far-infrared are progressively further from
10212-670: The network, and removing them. To do this requires a detailed map of the network. Jason Ethier of Northeastern University, in his study of modern social network analysis, said the following of the Scalable Social Network Analysis Program developed by the Information Awareness Office : The purpose of the SSNA algorithms program is to extend techniques of social network analysis to assist with distinguishing potential terrorist cells from legitimate groups of people.... In order to be successful SSNA will require information on
10323-434: The number of human operators required. Thus a swarm of automated, self-directing drones can automatically patrol a city and track suspicious individuals, reporting their activities back to a centralized monitoring station. In addition, researchers also investigate possibilities of autonomous surveillance by large groups of micro aerial vehicles stabilized by decentralized bio-inspired swarming rules. Corporate surveillance
10434-431: The observer being detected. Infrared astronomy uses sensor-equipped telescopes to penetrate dusty regions of space such as molecular clouds , to detect objects such as planets , and to view highly red-shifted objects from the early days of the universe . Infrared thermal-imaging cameras are used to detect heat loss in insulated systems, to observe changing blood flow in the skin, to assist firefighting, and to detect
10545-506: The overheating of electrical components. Military and civilian applications include target acquisition , surveillance , night vision , homing , and tracking. Humans at normal body temperature radiate chiefly at wavelengths around 10 μm. Non-military uses include thermal efficiency analysis, environmental monitoring, industrial facility inspections, detection of grow-ops , remote temperature sensing, short-range wireless communication , spectroscopy , and weather forecasting . There
10656-466: The past decade have contributed to rapid advances in aerial surveillance hardware such as micro-aerial vehicles , forward-looking infrared , and high-resolution imagery capable of identifying objects at extremely long distances. For instance, the MQ-9 Reaper , a U.S. drone plane used for domestic operations by the Department of Homeland Security , carries cameras that are capable of identifying an object
10767-402: The past, this data was documented in paper records, leaving a " paper trail ", or was simply not documented at all. Correlation of paper-based records was a laborious process—it required human intelligence operators to manually dig through documents, which was time-consuming and incomplete, at best. But today many of these records are electronic, resulting in an " electronic trail ". Every use of
10878-403: The person who holds the phone. The StingRay tracker is an example of one of these tools used to monitor cell phone usage in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally developed for counterterrorism purposes by the military, they work by broadcasting powerful signals that cause nearby cell phones to transmit their IMSI number , just as they would to normal cell phone towers. Once
10989-560: The phone is connected to the device, there is no way for the user to know that they are being tracked. The operator of the stingray is able to extract information such as location, phone calls, and text messages, but it is widely believed that the capabilities of the StingRay extend much further. A lot of controversy surrounds the StingRay because of its powerful capabilities and the secrecy that surrounds it. Mobile phones are also commonly used to collect location data. The geographical location of
11100-426: The radiation damage. "Since the eye cannot detect IR, blinking or closing the eyes to help prevent or reduce damage may not happen." Infrared lasers are used to provide the light for optical fiber communications systems. Wavelengths around 1,330 nm (least dispersion ) or 1,550 nm (best transmission) are the best choices for standard silica fibers. IR data transmission of audio versions of printed signs
11211-772: The rules of the observed party, whereas most types of surveillance are overt and are considered legal or legitimate by state authorities. International espionage seems to be common among all types of countries. The vast majority of computer surveillance involves the monitoring of data and traffic on the Internet . In the United States for example, under the Communications Assistance For Law Enforcement Act , all phone calls and broadband Internet traffic (emails, web traffic, instant messaging, etc.) are required to be available for unimpeded real-time monitoring by federal law enforcement agencies. There
11322-516: The size of a milk carton from altitudes of 30,000 feet (9.1 km), and has forward-looking infrared devices that can detect the heat from a human body at distances of up to 60 kilometers (37 mi). In an earlier instance of commercial aerial surveillance, the Killington Mountain ski resort hired 'eye in the sky' aerial photography of its competitors' parking lots to judge the success of its marketing initiatives as it developed starting in
11433-490: The social interactions of the majority of people around the globe. Since the Defense Department cannot easily distinguish between peaceful citizens and terrorists, it will be necessary for them to gather data on innocent civilians as well as on potential terrorists. AT&T developed a programming language called "Hancock", which is able to sift through enormous databases of phone call and Internet traffic records, such as
11544-529: The spectrum lower in energy than red light, by means of its effect on a thermometer . Slightly more than half of the energy from the Sun was eventually found, through Herschel's studies, to arrive on Earth in the form of infrared. The balance between absorbed and emitted infrared radiation has an important effect on Earth's climate . Infrared radiation is emitted or absorbed by molecules when changing rotational-vibrational movements. It excites vibrational modes in
11655-460: The telescope observatory at a high altitude, or by carrying the telescope aloft with a balloon or an aircraft. Space telescopes do not suffer from this handicap, and so outer space is considered the ideal location for infrared astronomy. Surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing , or directing. This can include observation from
11766-476: The temperature of objects (if the emissivity is known). This is termed thermography, or in the case of very hot objects in the NIR or visible it is termed pyrometry . Thermography (thermal imaging) is mainly used in military and industrial applications but the technology is reaching the public market in the form of infrared cameras on cars due to greatly reduced production costs. Thermographic cameras detect radiation in
11877-475: The train stations. As part of China's Golden Shield Project , several U.S. corporations, including IBM , General Electric , and Honeywell , have been working closely with the Chinese government to install millions of surveillance cameras throughout China , along with advanced video analytics and facial recognition software, which will identify and track individuals everywhere they go. They will be connected to
11988-451: The use of permanent device identifiers, and in 2019, they banned the ability of third parties to track on children’s apps. Although the CALEA requires telecommunications companies to build into their systems the ability to carry out a lawful wiretap, the law has not been updated to address the issue of smart phones and requests for access to e-mails and metadata . The Snowden leaks show that
12099-476: The visible light filtered out) can be detected up to approximately 780 nm, and will be perceived as red light. Intense light sources providing wavelengths as long as 1,050 nm can be seen as a dull red glow, causing some difficulty in near-IR illumination of scenes in the dark (usually this practical problem is solved by indirect illumination). Leaves are particularly bright in the near IR, and if all visible light leaks from around an IR-filter are blocked, and
12210-472: The visible spectrum. Other definitions follow different physical mechanisms (emission peaks, vs. bands, water absorption) and the newest follow technical reasons (the common silicon detectors are sensitive to about 1,050 nm, while InGaAs 's sensitivity starts around 950 nm and ends between 1,700 and 2,600 nm, depending on the specific configuration). No international standards for these specifications are currently available. The onset of infrared
12321-502: Was reported to have a huge surveillance network of over 170 million CCTV cameras with 400 million new cameras expected to be installed in the next three years, many of which use facial recognition technology . In the United States , the Department of Homeland Security awards billions of dollars per year in Homeland Security grants for local, state, and federal agencies to install modern video surveillance equipment. For example,
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