Non Visible Imaging

Introduction:

Near infrared light consists of light just beyond visible red light (wavelengths greater than 780nm). Contrary to popular thought near infrared photography does not allow the recording of thermal radiation (heat). !ar"infrared thermal imaging re#uires more speciali$ed e#uipment. %nfrared images e&hibit a few distinct effects that give them an e&otic anti#ue loo'. (lant life loo's completely white because it reflects almost all infrared light (because of this effect infrared photography is commonly used in aerial photography to analy$e crop yields pest control etc.) )he s'y is a star' blac' because no infrared light is scattered. *uman s'in loo's pale and ghostly. +ar' sunglasses all but disappear in infrared because they don,t bloc' any infrared light and it,s said that you can capture the near infrared emissions of a common iron

Near"infrared (-000 " .000 nm) spectrometry which employs an e&ternal light source for determination of chemical composition has been previously utili$ed for industrial determination of the fat content of commercial meat products for in vivo determination of body fat and in our laboratories for determination of lipoprotein composition in carotid artery atherosclerotic pla#ues. Near"infrared (%/) spectrometry has been used industrially for several years to determine saturation of unsaturated fatty acid esters (-). Near"%/ spectrometry uses an tunable light source e&ternal to the e&perimental subject to determine its chemical composition. %ndustrial utili$ation of near"%/ will allow for the in vivo measurement of the tissue" specific rate of o&ygen utili$ation as an indirect estimate of energy e&penditure. *owever assessment of regional o&ygen consumption by these methods is comple& re#uiring a high level of surgical s'ill for implantation of indwelling catheters to isolate the organ under study