The worldwide swine flu outbreak has led to many airports implementing thermal imaging technology systems to pick up whether travellers might have the deadly disease, and South Africa is no exception.

In the past month, the deadly virus has infected hundreds of people worldwide and even caused deaths, leading to the World Health Organisation contemplating declaring a worldwide pandemic.

Thermal imaging technology systems are able to detect fever in travellers who are then immediately stopped by airport officials to investigate the cause of the fever.

Electronic intelligence video company C3 Shared Services (C3SS) business develop- ment director Brendon Cowley explains to Engineering News how this technology works: “A thermal imaging camera is the only camera which measures temperature, and it does not require light such as conventional cameras would need. The thermal imaging cameras are combined with intelligent video equipment, which is able to pick up heat radiation through infrared. The programme can also pick up certain human behaviour.”

He notes that the thermal technology does not need 20 screens to monitor all areas surrounding an airport – two or three would do the job. The cameras are programmed to pick up any abnormalities and sound an alarm to draw the operator’s attention to the specific area in which an abnormality has been located.

However, even though South Africa is currently implementing thermal imaging technology at Lanseria Airport, other areas and airports are still open to threat. “Swine flu is a massive risk and it could definitely benefit the country to have these cameras deployed at all major entrance points into the country, such as at ports and border controls.”

All these points of entry can be monitored by one central monitoring station, as long as an effective communication system is available.

On why South Africa has only now started to invest in thermal imaging technology, he explains that thermal imaging has always been a technology developed for military use and measurement purposes on industrial sites, but has slowly been introduced into the commercial industry during the last five years. The technology is extremely expensive.

However, he reveals that there are many benefits that can be derived from the technology. “The benefit is phenomenal. The camera is active for 24 hours a day and, as previously explained, only needs one person to monitor. It provides intelligence, and every pixel in the camera is scanned 30 times a second for a specific change taking place in the area being monitored.”

At entry points into a country, the technology can also be useful in picking up nervous beha- viour of travellers.

Recent scandalous arrests of airport staff members allegedly smuggling drugs out of South Africa to London have raised controversy, but if the thermal imaging technology is instal- led at airports, it might lead to more arrests.

When you are nervous, your body generates more heat. The technology can be programmed to pick up nervous behaviour that would show heat patterns in specific areas of the body, which, for example, would, perhaps, be located below the eyes.

However, he notes that people are wary of installing the technology for this purpose, because no one wants to be the guinea pig, and they would rather see cases confirmed by other countries before making such a huge investment.

C3SS is the distributor of Israeli company Opgal’s equipment. Opgal produced more than 300 units of the thermal imaging technology cameras during the Severe Accute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak a few years ago.

Cowley says that the company expects to receive a prototype of the latest thermal imaging technology from the company, which it will test and discuss options and opportu- nities for introducing the product into the South African market.