Uh oh! Looks like Dave found some fresh meat. Go get 'em tiger.
246 views on this. Someone has got to come up with something!
I was never good at the “guess what this is” in ITC’s monthly newsletter!
I still think Scott is pulling a fast one on us here! 
Your infrared camera is getting through the glass while my camera is instantly reading reflections(being blocked). Even when going to the lowest emissivity setting on my camera, I don’t even begin to catch a glimpse of the filament. Glass has such a low emissivity(high reflection value) that I can see my thermal reflection just as if I was looking in the mirror.
Your getting beyond something(glass) that my camera simply refuses to do(no matter the settings). I’m beginning to wonder if your using a special camera sending a different wavelength than what my camera is capable of sending. I’m not even sure what exact wavelengths can get through glass(I’m thinking shorter is better), but I know we have other thermal imaging devices that are higher and lower wavelength cameras that are specifically made to penetrate specific materials.
Me and Mr. Anderson may not see eye to eye on everything, but I’m going to take his side on this debate. I don’t think normal infrared wavelengths can penetrate glass.
Do you mind listing the name of the camera used to capture these images so I can figure out the difference in what I’m using and what your using?
Scott, you definitely succeeded in throwing some of us for a loop and making us think a little outside of the box.
Regardless of what the final outcome is, my biggest lesson learned is to get as much information as possible pertaining to any images I’m trying to interpret BEFORE I begin spending time scratching my head and making assumptions.
Glass blocks 90% of radiant heat.
The filament from the bulb is showing us 10% of it energy in radiant heat.
The reason glass is not allowing passage of heat signitures in a pattern that is usable to a viewer is that convection and conduction diffuse the sharp image into a muddled soup of fog in the glass.
I stick buy my original idea that he took the image before the glass had time to heat up because radiant heat traveled or passed through the glass before it had a chance to spread through conduction into the glass and force viewing an even temperatured surface…
By the way that also explains why glass is not used for lenses or as Charlie called them ,windows.
Your answer seemed to be very logical and it actually had me thinking about it for about 10 minutes. Heck, I even tried it out on 2 different bulbs but never got a good view of the filament. I even tried to get the filament reading on a 250W heat lamp bulb. This bulb puts off temps of over 500 degrees which would have that filament extremely hot. If I was to be able to read just 10% of the filaments heat than I could make the adjustments to get an image. My camera want let me make any readings beyond the glass. The glass is reflecting 99% of the wavelengths I’m trying to blast through. I don’t think my camera provides the length rays get 10% penetration(or so it seems).
Anyways, I’ve been drinking so It’s best I step away from the keyboard before I start making even less sense.
I did not say anything about what lenses were made from I was talking about the windows installed on high voltage electrical panels used to safety view the equipment with the IR camera;-)
nominal glass !
It’s been a couple of days…so I will tell you that one of you is very close. I won’t say which one though until there are some better explanations posted.
Here is a hint that will not give it away. Consider how we can see through glass with our eyes. If you can figure out why our eyes can and Brandon can’t with his camera, you will have the answer.
Also note that Charley and Mr Anderson know exactly how this is done.
Really good post Scott.
JJ
I’ll bite. Was the bulb inside a glass bottle or something similar? Instead of picking up the heat of the bulb the filament was able to show it is hotter.
Same filament in picture 2 as the light bulb in picture 1. They are not lined up because I didn’t have the camera mounted on a tripod and my angle changed slightly from one picture to the next. That, by the way does not have any effect on the image and how it was produced.
Not the case Bob, but it was a good guess thinking outside of the box. The bulb is from my desk lamp which is on 24 hours a day. There was no manipulation of the conditions to obtain these images.
Actually, UV light does pass through glass. This can be demonstrated by sun bleaching of furniture and other objects in front of windows.
Remember that UV is in a different wavelength in the light spectrum as infrared.
Sorry,I gave my self a 5 minute crash course for fun of it.Thought I could pull a Rain Man…unless you are viewing the UV spectrum only in some way…nah.
UV is also what attracts bugs to light. This is why LED lights do not attract bugs, which is yet another benefit to LED lights.
JJ
Show off!
Everyone knows that the light bulb glass is reflective and nearly opaque to our uncooled imagers. Must be done with smoke and mirrors.
Hey, what’s with that funny extension on your image files?
Darn Jason, I couldn’t get a bite off of you!?
I got some phone calls asking if I was out in the sun too long… 
Actually, I was. Cutting hay this weekend…
Brandon:
You have some interesting concepts going on there but I am having trouble understanding these statements;
[FONT=Arial][size=2]You are talking as if the camera emits something (like an x-ray machine). The thermal camera is a passive device that simply records what it’s pointed at.[/size][/FONT]
[size=2][FONT=Arial]Maybe if you adjust your perspective of the camera reacting with the lightbulb to what the camera is receiving you will solve this brainteaser.
[/size][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial][size=2]Emissivity settings on your camera do not change what the camera sees, or how it records the thermal scan. It is an adjustment of the “apparent temperature” that the camera is receiving so that the numbers you see in the camera become “corrected temperature” measurements. (And sometimes transmissivity adjustments are required).[/size][/FONT]
[size=2][FONT=Arial]Emissivity, relative humidity, distance and temperature reflect settings are required to obtain a “corrected temperature” measurement.
Have another beer, the answer may come to you! The world is not always as it seems. Sometimes a beer will get you thinking outside of the box! 
[/size][/FONT]
I guess I was thinking about it the wrong way. A camera doesn’t emit anything so the comments of my camera “getting through” the glass make no sense. It seems my thoughts were way off base so I can’t really answer these questions.
My camera has a detector that reads heat(frequency waves) and translates it into signals. The only thing I should be concerned with is what signals are being emitted out of the bulb vs me being able to get any kinda signal into the bulb.
The filament is emitting a certain wavelength. Once that wavelength hits the glass bulb than it’s probably being blocked or reflected or something. Whatever exactly is happening, my camera can’t seem to read whatever frequency wavelengths are being emitted beyond the glass bulb, or actually the glass is blocking any frequencies that would be detectable by a typical IR camera.
? : Why my eye’s can see the filament and my camera can’t?
A: I’m guessing it’s because a certain portion of the electromagnetic spectrum can’t be detected by my camera while there’s also a certain part of the spectrum that can’t be detected by my eyes. My eyes can’t see the Infrared portion(hence the need for IR cameras). The typical(mid-range frequency) infrared camera doesn’t receive the frequency being emitted beyond glass.
Without looking the answer up on the internet or searching back through my level 1 stuff, I can’t think of much else. A prime example of “If you don’t use it, you lose it”.
My final an best answer: My camera’s detector isn’t capable of receiving the particular sized wavelengths that are making it beyond the glass bulb. A job-specific camera that is capable of receiving a broader range of the frequency spectrum is being used.
Maybe a beer or two might actually help out. I’ve only tried whiskey and that didn’t seem to do the trick:mrgreen:
You are super close, Brandon. Its actually more important that you are just thinking it out rather than looking it up.
It is covered more in level II than I.
JJ