SKIN TEMPERATURE RECORDING WITH PHOSPHORS: A NEW TECHNIQUE

New knowledge of temperature irregularities associated with various disease states has resulted in increasing interest in the recording of heat radiation from the human body. Infrared radiation from the skin is a surface phenomenon and the amount of such radiation increases with temperature. Previous recording techniques have been not only crude but difficult and expensive. An unconventional thermal imaging system is described which gives superior temperature patterns and is also simpler and cheaper than any of the other available procedures. This system is based on the employment of thermally sensitive phosphors which glow when exposed to ultraviolet illumination, in inverse proportion to the underlying temperature. The thermal image can be directly observed or more critically analyzed and photographed on a simple closed-circuit television monitor.