FLIR Systems, which manufacturers thermal imaging cameras for surveillance, has landed a number of contracts for airport installations.
The company reported that its thermal imaging technology, which effectively sees in the dark, had received orders totaling $2 million from a number of U.S. airports. On that list of airports were such locations as Dallas-Fort Worth, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and New York area port authority airports of Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark and Teterboro.
The thermal imaging technology will be primarily used for perimeter security at these airports, and was purchased as part of the DHS perimeter intrusion detection initiative for domestic airports. Unlike traditional CCTV (which depends on visual light for image capture), or traditional active infrared (which uses illuminators to cover an area with light that can only be seen by night vision goggles and some surveillance cameras), the FLIR technology looks for heat signatures of intruders and vehicles using what's called passive thermal infrared.
FLIR's president, Earl Lewis, said the new contracts with the airports recognized the technology's worth "for high-value asset protection applications."
