An infrared device originally used to help troops detect suicide bombers is now available for local law enforcement agencies, and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has purchased two of them, according to a spokesman for the company selling them.
Within the past 30 days, an agreement was reached between Thermal Matrix and the sheriff's office, said Chris Jadick, vice president of communications for the Clearwater company. Delivery of the products is expected within the next couple of months.
Jadick said the devices start at $60,000 apiece and can run into the six figures, depending on how they are customized. The exact price tag for the two devices being purchased by the Pinellas Sheriff's Office was not available. The sheriff's office was not commenting on the purchase on the grounds that doing so would reveal their surveillance techniques.
The ACT system - the acronym stands for Access Counter IED Technology -- consists of a thermal imagery camera, a laptop and Thermal Matrix software, Jadick said. It will essentially help the sheriff's office analyze a particular scene graphically for perceived threats.
By combining thermal imaging and the company's software, the ACT system helps authorities determine whether someone has hidden underneath their clothing a threatening object, be it a package of explosives or a firearm.
The hidden object is going to have a different temperature reading than the human body, Jadick explained, and Thermal Matrix's software will illustrate that on the laptop computer screen. Normal body temperature will be represented by the color gray on the laptop computer screen, but anything potentially threatening will be represented in a more vibrant color such as red or yellow, he said.
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