The pyroelectric vidicon camera as a medical thermograph.

The operating principles of a pyroelectric vidicon (PEV) tube as an infra red (IR) image detector tube are explained. Characteristic requirements such as pedestal operation and sensitivity to time varying scenes are outlined. Of the possible read-out modes, the synchronous chopper mode is considered. The PEV camera properties are discussed in terms of measurement errors. The largest such as pedestal variations, noise and thermal blurring can be reduced to an acceptable level by image processing. A future PEV camera system with specifications comparable to, or even better than, those of existing commerical medical IR scanners seems to be possible.