Holograms vs Thermal Vision. Need help.

[Hairball]

Hi,

I'm a Scandinavian screenwriter. I am working on a script, containing similar Holographic tech used in Spiderman. BUT ran into a possible issue.
WOULD Thermal Vision see through a hologram hiding a specific object/person? Like would it be invisible or would there be a bright wall?

The protagonist uses it in covert operative missions.

If anyone could help me out I would be very grateful.

 

[AllanR]

I believe your protagonist could project a hologram specifically to fool the thermal vision.

Holographs are manipulated waves and theoretically any wave can be used. (ie acoustic, neutron beams..) Thermal vision is imaging on a wavelength we can't see normally.

 

[Bramandin]

I think maybe you have to decide how the thermal tech works and how the hologram tech works.

I just looked up how Sony Nightshot worked, and it's a similar frequency to television remotes, which I think is infrared that's just outside of our range, so invisible light. If someone designed a hologram with human eyesight in mind, even that technology would react oddly to it. I remember a black silk shirt I had that would glow for that camera because I guess the dye didn't absorb that frequency.

So the answer is that you can decide how the hologram and thermal tech interact. If it's truly thermal-based, it depends on how much heat the illusion is putting out.

 

[Hairball]

Thank you so much for your answers. It's been bugging me like crazy.

 

[Wayne Mack]

Yes, thermal imaging would see through holographic images. This is the reason that thermal imaging sees through camouflage. Some ideas on how to address this.

Ignore it. One of the challenges with the Spiderman holograms is that there would be bleed through. Bright images behind the hologram would show through, especially in darker, shadowed areas of the hologram. The writers simply drove through that fact in order to tell an interesting story.

Over come the heat signature. By projecting heat, the underlying heat signature could be hidden. Projecting a flame would hide the heat from a human body. Likewise, projecting a larger figure's head image could hide a smaller figure.

Mask the heat signature. Put the person or object to be disguised in some sort of suit that prevents heat being radiated (or significantly dampens it). The suit may radiate heat in other directions or perhaps concentrate into a smaller area that would agree with the holographic projection, say a camp fire or a motorcycle engine.

I hope this sparks some ideas for you. It sounds like you have an interestng idea to build on and I would not like the facts to get too much in the way of a good story.