Home Security Cameras with Night Vision

It is obvious that business or home security cameras are most useful at night. The darkness enables intruders to easily break into homes and business without being noticed, and a security camera without any night vision capability will be of little use during these hours unless the surveillance area is extremely well lit. However, by utilizing some type of night vision technology, intruders will have a very difficult time accomplishing their goal without being recorded and identified. The basic installation and monitoring is exactly the same as most other security cameras, but with night vision cameras you can always keep a watchful eye, day or night.

There are two most common types of technology used to record images in a dark environment. Both methods make use of the infrared spectrum, but utilize it in different ways. Infrared is basically a form of electromagnetic radiation, which has a longer wavelength than the light that is visible to the human eye. The color red has the longest wavelength of any visible color, and infrared has a wavelength that is even longer. Because infrared has a variable wavelength of 750 nm to 1mm, there is large spectrum of infrared light that can be used in different ways.

One way infrared is used is known as image enhancement. This night vision technology gathers small amounts of infrared light from the lower portion of the spectrum and amplifies it by many times. This makes the infrared light visible, thus revealing any objects or people. This is the same night vision method used on most night vision goggles, and it appears on the monitor to be a black and white type of image with a greenish tent.

Thermal imaging is another method of utilizing infrared light. Instead of amplifying the lower part of the infrared spectrum, it actually monitors the upper portion of the spectrum, which reveals something entirely different. The upper part of the infrared spectrum is produced by the emission of heat. Warmer things actually give off these higher spectrum infrared rays, and when amplified, they can reveal the human body by the heat it is putting out. The image produced from thermal imaging has a larger color spectrum, but the colors are associated with the amount of heat rather than the actual colors of the person or object. The warmer areas are recorded as “warmer colors” or yellows and reds, while colder areas show purples and blues. For this reason, sometimes the images can be more difficult to interpret.

Both of these technologies have been used for surveillance and home security cameras very successfully, providing security footage in the darkest of environments. If you have a dark area that poses some security concern consider installing a camera with night vision capabilities.

About the Author: Mike Ward is the owner and operator of Protection Depot, a leading online supplier of home security cameras and mini security cameras. For more information about security cameras, please visit Protection Depot.