any one know of a thermal camera that can be mounted to a car. any one have an ir night vision. do they see realy well in the dark.

 

Thermal camera in the car...that would be neat. Wicked damn expensive but neat. All the thermal stuff I have seen has to run through some kind of computer, usually a laptop. As for night vision it would not be a great idea to use in the car. A major problem with night vision goggles is the loss of perpherial vision. Like the PVS 7 NVG's....dual optic openings and no perpherial. New millitary night vision like the PVS 14 use what is called "dominant eye". That means only one eye looks through the device while the other matains natural view. That helps with the loss of peripheral vision and how the changes to the loss of light when the goggles are removed. All these things make it not such a good idea to use while driving. As for how well they work. That depends on the optics that you are using. There are a few generations of night vision. There is also mil spec and civilian spec optics. I own a Gen 1 Russian scope...piece of junk. Lousy viewing...has to have IR or radiant light and is not clear. I also own a Gen 3 PVS 14 system. Now with that I can read a book in the dark. But you are talking a piece that is around 300.00 vs a piece that is almost 4000.00.

 

I've done some research on this topic ... really, really wanted to to adapt something for the vette. This would be the feature no one else had ... I love adapting military technology to consumer vehicles!

Raytheon has the only product currently shipping that I know of. It's a passive FLIR system called NightDriver. It displays in a small B/W HUD that mounts to the top of the dash. The sensor mounts in the grill. It's the product that up until recently was being put in the Cadillac Seville. (Cadillac dropped it last month because no one would pay the 2K they were asking.) You can buy an aftermarket kit for an H1/2 Hummer for about $3500. Those Hummer guys appear to be bigger gadget freaks than us Vette drivers ... I looked into modifying the H2 kit - I'm certain I could do it - but I've probably spent too much on the car already - and 3500 would be better spent on my next ride. ... and there would be some large fabrication costs as well ...

Raytheon has some other products as well - most are meant for law enforcement. They're physically larger, but more bullet-proof ... probably a bad word to use ... They have one that looks promising that has the sensor on a 360 degree camera mount ... it uses a normal monitor for output. I belive it's around 5K though.

There is a next gen system being developed by several companies right now - for release in late 2006/2007 - it's an active system (laser based) that has much improved resolution. (and supposedly lower cost) Mercedes plans to put it into the next S class - I heard they were going to show it at one of the auto shows next year.

There's probably some other options out there I don't know about. Hopefully someone will know of something else ...

For reference - here are the dimensions for the H2 Night Driver:

HUD Closed 8.9W x 1.25H x 7D
HUD Open 8.9W x 4.5 H x 7D
Front Camera 6.6W x 8H x 4.25D