*L*E*G*A*C*Y*
Done.
Sad stuff...hopefully this doesn't get any worse.
First case of ebola reported in Africa's most populous city Lagos
- Thread starter Poitier
- Start date
The is fukking scary man. I had my tinfoil hat on earlier, so I thought it was an odd coincidence that the moment Nigeria began to embrace nationalism all of a sudden you had the boko haram kidnapping fiasco, the terrorist bombings and now this. Just seems like the perfect trifecta of things to destabilize one of Africa's most prosperous regions 
ebola is indeed deadly but it's easy to contain which is why there have never been any major outbreaks despite how deadly the virus is. It's spread through contact with bodily fluids and symptoms show up within days so all it takes is public education, good health care hygiene, proper isolation and burial practices, etc to keep it under control.
Oh and there were ebola outbreaks in sudan. viruses live in other organisms so it doesn't matter how harsh an environment is. if its host can survive somewhere then so can the virus. the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) virus which originated in the middle east have the potential to do way more damage than ebola.
The is fukking scary man. I had my tinfoil hat on earlier, so I thought it was an odd coincidence that the moment Nigeria began to embrace nationalism all of a sudden you had the boko haram kidnapping fiasco, the terrorist bombings and now this. Just seems like the perfect trifecta of things to destabilize one of Africa's most prosperous regions
Which is why I put the disclaimer of me having the tinfoil hat on.
TELL ME YA CHEESIN FAM?
I walk around a little edgy already
Its Africa..u cant stop people from eating bush meat..
newworldafro
DeeperThanRapBiggerThanHH
- http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articl...red_enough_ebola_vaccine_west_africa_outbreak
VOICE
You Are Not Nearly Scared Enough About Ebola
Experimental drugs and airport screenings will do nothing to stop this plague. If Ebola hits Lagos, we're in real trouble.- BY LAURIE GARRETT
- AUGUST 14, 2014
You think there are magic bullets in some rich country's freezers that will instantly stop the relentless spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa? You think airport security guards in Los Angeles can look a traveler in the eyes and see infection, blocking that jet passenger's entry into La-la-land? You believe novelist Dan Brown's utterly absurd description of a World Health Organization that has a private C5-A military transport jet and disease SWAT team that can swoop into outbreaks, saving the world from contagion?
Wake up, fools. What's going on in West Africa now isn't Brown's sillyInferno scenario -- it's Steven Soderbergh's movie Contagion, though without a modicum of its high-tech capacity.
Last week, my brilliant Council on Foreign Relations colleague John Campbell, former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, warned that spread of the virus inside Lagos -- which has apopulation of 22 million -- would instantly transform this situation into a worldwide crisis, thanks to the chaos, size, density, and mobility of not only that city but dozens of others in the enormous, oil-rich nation. Add to the Nigerian scenario civil war, national elections, Boko Haram terrorists, and a countrywide doctors' strike -- all of which are real and current -- and you have a scenario so overwrought and frighteningthat I could not have concocted it evenwhen I advised screenwriter Scott Burns on hisContagion script.
Inside the United States, politicians, gadflies, and much of the media are focused on wildly experimental drugs and vaccines, and equally wild notions of "keeping the virus out" by barring travelers and "screening at airports."
Let's be clear: Absolutely no drug or vaccine has been proven effective against the Ebola virus in human beings.
Let's be clear: Absolutely no drug or vaccine has been proven effective against the Ebola virus in human beings. To date, only one person -- Dr. Kent Brantly -- has apparently recovered after receiving one of the three prominent putative drugs, and there is no proof that the drug was key to his improvement. None of the potential vaccines has even undergone Phase Onesafety trials in humans, though at least two are scheduled to enter that stage before December of this year.And Phase One is the swiftest, easiest part of new vaccine trials -- the two stages of clinical trials aimed at proving that vaccines actually work will be difficult, if not impossible, to ethically and safely execute. If one of the vaccines is ready to beused in Africa sometime in 2015, the measure will be executed without prior evidence that it can work, which in turn will require massive public education to ensure that people who receive the vaccination do not change their behaviors in ways that might put them in contact with Ebola -- because they mistakenly believe they are immune to the virus.
We are in for a very long haul with this extremely deadly disease -- it has killed more than 50 percent of those laboratory-confirmed infections, and possibly more than 70 percent of the infected populations of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. Nigeria is struggling to ensure that no secondary spread of Ebola comes from one of the people alreadyinfected by Liberian traveler Patrick Sawyer -- two of whom have died so far. That effort was expanded on Wednesday, when Nigerian health authorities announced that a nurse who had treated Sawyer had escaped her quarantine confinement in Lagos and traveled to Enugu, a state that, as of 2006, has a population of about 3 million. Though the nurse has not shown symptoms of the disease, the incubation time for infection, which is up to 21 days, hasn't elapsed.
Since the Ebola outbreak began in March there have been many reports of isolated cases of the disease in travelers to other countries. None has resulted, so far, in secondary spread, i.e., establishing new epidemic focuses of the disease. As I write this, one such isolated case is thought to have occurred inJohannesburg, South Africa's largest city, and another suspected case reportedly died in isolation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, prompting the kingdom to issue special Ebola warnings for the upcoming hajj. It's only a matter of time before one of these isolated cases spreads, possibly in a chaotic urban center far larger than the ones in which it is now claiming lives: Conakry, Guinea; Monrovia, Liberia; and Freetown, Sierra Leone.
So what does "getting it" mean for understanding what we, as a global community, must now do?
First of all, we must appreciate the scale of need on the ground in the three Ebola-plagued nations. While the people may pray for magic bullets, their health providers are not working in Hollywood, but rather in some of the most impoverished places on Earth. Before Ebola, these countries spent less than $100 per year per capita on health care. Most Americans spend more than that annually on aspirin and ibuprofen.
We must collectively listen to the pleading and anguish coming from those courageous health providers who have seen Ebola claim more than 80 of their colleagues since the crisis began. What do they want?
On Aug. 8, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola epidemic a "public health emergency of international concern." In its pronouncement, the agency noted the urgent need for local government actions, such as the recently erected cordons sanitaires, and for global mobilization of medical resources. The WHO has repeatedly warned that this epidemic could persist for a minimum of six months, perhaps a year. The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden, has concurred with that grim forecast.
"It's like fighting a forest fire: leave behind one burning ember, one case undetected, and the epidemic could re-ignite," Frieden recently told Congress. "Ending this outbreak will take time, at least three to six months in a best case scenario, but this is very far from a best case scenario."
At the same congressional hearing, Dr. Frank Glover, a medical missionary who partners with SIM, a Christian missions organization,and the president of SHIELD, a U.S.-based NGO in Africa, warned that Liberia had fewer than 200 doctors struggling to meet the health needs of 4 million people before the epidemic. "After the outbreak that number went down to about 50 doctors involved in clinical care," said Glover.
I myself have received emails fromphysicians in these countries, describing the complete collapse of all non-Ebola care, from unassisted deliveries to untended auto accident injuries. People aren't just dying of the virus, but from every imaginable medical issue a system of care usually faces.
Ken Isaacs, vice president of international programs and government relations at Samaritan's Purse, the aid organization that has two of its members fighting for their lives in Ebola quarantine in Atlanta, told Congress, "It took two Americans getting the disease in order for the international community and United States to take serious notice of the largest outbreak of the disease in history. That the world would allow two relief agencies to shoulder this burden along with the overwhelmed Ministries of Health in these countries, testifies to the lack of serious attention the epidemic was given."
Despite current response mechanisms, this Ebola outbreak, Isaacs said as he closed his remarks, "is uncontained and out of control in West Africa."
Even if the world dodges a viral bullet and Ebola fails to take hold in a metropolis in a different country (such as Lagos, Johannesburg, Delhi, or Sao Paulo), controlling the disease and saving lives in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea will require resources on a scale nobody has delineated. The emotionally distraught doctors and nurses on the front lines are screaming for help.
Let's start with simple, on-the-ground manpower. All three countries desperately need doctors, nurses, medical technicians, ambulance drivers, Red Cross volunteers, epidemiologists, and health logistics experts. They do not need novice do-gooders from the wealthy world, but people experienced in working under the stifling conditions of tropical heat, the desperation of supplies deficits, and the fearfulness of epidemics. The lion's share of care to date has been provided by one group -- Médecins Sans Frontières -- which is pleading for others to relieve their exhausted ranks: 600 people who have been fighting for months on the front lines in this war.
Nothing could be clearer than this MSF press release, dated Aug. 8:
Dr. Bart Janssens, MSF Director of Operations
"Declaring Ebola an international public health emergency shows how seriously WHO is taking the current outbreak; but statements won't save lives. Now we need this statement to translate into immediate action on the ground. For weeks, MSF has been repeating that a massive medical, epidemiological and public health response is desperately needed to saves lives and reverse the course of the epidemic. Lives are being lost because the response is too slow.
Countries possessing necessary capacities must immediately dispatch available infectious disease experts and disaster relief assets to the region. It is clear the epidemic will not be contained without a massive deployment on the ground from these states.
In concrete terms, all of the following need to be radically scaled up: medical care, training of health staff, infection control, contact tracing, epidemiological surveillance, alert and referral systems, community mobilisation and education.
MSF currently has 66 international and 610 national staff responding to the crisis in the three affected countries. All our Ebola experts are mobilized, we simply cannot do more."
Here is the list of supplies Emmet A. Dennis, president of the University of Liberia, emailedthat he needs for his medical school personnel now fighting cases in Monrovia:
Gowns -- Isolation
Underpads -- Disposable
Gloves, Examination -- All Sizes
Body Bags -- Adult & Children
Infectious Waste Bag -- Red
Face Mask -- Duckbilled
Face Shield -- Disposable
Eye Shields -- Disposable
Shoe Covers
Aprons -- Disposable
Sanitizer Wipes
Plastic Boots
Surgical Caps -- Disposable
Disinfectant
Scrubs (L & XL)
Thermometer: Infrared -- Thermofocus
Disinfectant Soap
Chlorinated Disinfectant
Rehydration Fluids
R/L Solution
N/S Solution
It simply does not get more basic. As there are no miracle drugs for Ebola, the needs include few medicines, though other local responders tell me that they wish they had sterile syringes, saline drips, and fever modulators such as aspirin.
"Getting it," in this epidemic, means realizing that over the next six to 12 months, these countries will needs millions of dollars' worth of basic supplies, hundreds of highly skilled health care workers, including logistics supplies officers, and self-sufficiency for all foreigners (food, water, personal supplies). As the border blockades ending trade to these nations persist, food supplies for the population will also become acutely short, probably necessitating World Food Program assistance. Exhausted, frightened young soldiers and police will need their ranks replaced slowly with United Nations Peacekeepers or soldiers from the African Union.
And of course this list assumes Ebola remains confined in terms of secondary spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. If the virus takes hold in another, more populous nation, the needs will grow exponentially, and swiftly.
Underpads -- Disposable
Gloves, Examination -- All Sizes
Body Bags -- Adult & Children
Infectious Waste Bag -- Red
Face Mask -- Duckbilled
Face Shield -- Disposable
Eye Shields -- Disposable
Shoe Covers
Aprons -- Disposable
Sanitizer Wipes
Plastic Boots
Surgical Caps -- Disposable
Disinfectant
Scrubs (L & XL)
Thermometer: Infrared -- Thermofocus
Disinfectant Soap
Chlorinated Disinfectant
Rehydration Fluids
R/L Solution
N/S Solution
It simply does not get more basic. As there are no miracle drugs for Ebola, the needs include few medicines, though other local responders tell me that they wish they had sterile syringes, saline drips, and fever modulators such as aspirin.
"Getting it," in this epidemic, means realizing that over the next six to 12 months, these countries will needs millions of dollars' worth of basic supplies, hundreds of highly skilled health care workers, including logistics supplies officers, and self-sufficiency for all foreigners (food, water, personal supplies). As the border blockades ending trade to these nations persist, food supplies for the population will also become acutely short, probably necessitating World Food Program assistance. Exhausted, frightened young soldiers and police will need their ranks replaced slowly with United Nations Peacekeepers or soldiers from the African Union.
And of course this list assumes Ebola remains confined in terms of secondary spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. If the virus takes hold in another, more populous nation, the needs will grow exponentially, and swiftly.
Last edited:
newworldafro
DeeperThanRapBiggerThanHH
I mentioned in another thread or maybe this one ...of possible scenarios where Ebola is going to begin to have a "black face" attached to it...and discrimination was going to start to pick up whether blatant or worse ...... well these are blatant versions here......
http://mediaequalizer.com/brian-maloney/2014/08/korea-africans-unwelcome
Korea: “Africans” unwelcome
Ebola gives pub excuse to bar black people
By Brian Maloney August 18th, 2014, 13:26 EDT
With ethnic relations once again making headlines in America, racism elsewhere can sometimes make discrimination here appear relatively minor by comparison. Consider what those of African origin face when living or traveling in Asia, for example.
Today’s illustration comes from Twitter, where one restaurant in South Korea is refusing to serve black people due to fears over Ebola!
Imagine the outrage were this sign to appear anywhere in the United States:
Given that many American soldiers stationed in Korea are African-American, it’s hard to believe this isn’t generating more attention here at home.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...om-African-customers/articleshow/40376934.cms
Ebola fear: Kolkata sex workers asked to stay away from African customers
Saibal Gupta,TNN | Aug 18, 2014, 08.09 PM IST
31 Comments
AKolkata Sex Workers|Ebola Fear
In an advice sent to the sex workers in the largest red-light area in Kolkata, it has been said that the sex workers need to be careful while choosing about choosing their customers from Africa.
KOLKATA: As the spreading of Ebola virus grows the sex workers of Sonagachi are cautioned regarding choosing of customers. In an advice sent to the sex workers in the largest red-light area in Kolkata, it has been said that the sex workers need to be careful while choosing about choosing their customers from Africa, who are regular visitors to the place.
Durbar Mahila Samannay Committee — the NGO that works with nearly 13,000 sex workers of the area are closely monitoring the situation and are training the girls so that they can understand the symptoms, problems and threat of this disease. "We have requested the sex workers not to entertain people from African nations as it can be a life risk for them if they get infected by the highly contagious Ebola virus which is causing havoc in some West African countries," a member of DMSC said.
Ebola virus (EBOV, formerly designated Zaire ebolavirus) is the sole member of the Zaire ebolavirus species, and the most dangerous of the five known viruses within the genus Ebolavirus. Four of the five known ebolaviruses cause a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, known as Ebola virus disease. "Though the disease yet to reach Kolkata but this is an easy way through which the disease be spread and so we are taking all steps to check all measures so that it can be checked before it arrives," the member said. Samarjit Jana of DMSC is presently engaged in training and providing lessons to sex workers to identify the signs of the Ebola disease.
According to WHO guidelines, transmission of the virus requires close contact with body fluids such as sweat, saliva and the cough of an infected person, and also body contact. "So we are training the sex workers on how to identify the symptoms," the member said.
http://mediaequalizer.com/brian-maloney/2014/08/korea-africans-unwelcome
Korea: “Africans” unwelcome
Ebola gives pub excuse to bar black people
By Brian Maloney August 18th, 2014, 13:26 EDT
With ethnic relations once again making headlines in America, racism elsewhere can sometimes make discrimination here appear relatively minor by comparison. Consider what those of African origin face when living or traveling in Asia, for example.
Today’s illustration comes from Twitter, where one restaurant in South Korea is refusing to serve black people due to fears over Ebola!
Imagine the outrage were this sign to appear anywhere in the United States:
Given that many American soldiers stationed in Korea are African-American, it’s hard to believe this isn’t generating more attention here at home.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...om-African-customers/articleshow/40376934.cms
Ebola fear: Kolkata sex workers asked to stay away from African customers
Saibal Gupta,TNN | Aug 18, 2014, 08.09 PM IST
31 Comments
AKolkata Sex Workers|Ebola Fear
In an advice sent to the sex workers in the largest red-light area in Kolkata, it has been said that the sex workers need to be careful while choosing about choosing their customers from Africa.
KOLKATA: As the spreading of Ebola virus grows the sex workers of Sonagachi are cautioned regarding choosing of customers. In an advice sent to the sex workers in the largest red-light area in Kolkata, it has been said that the sex workers need to be careful while choosing about choosing their customers from Africa, who are regular visitors to the place.
Durbar Mahila Samannay Committee — the NGO that works with nearly 13,000 sex workers of the area are closely monitoring the situation and are training the girls so that they can understand the symptoms, problems and threat of this disease. "We have requested the sex workers not to entertain people from African nations as it can be a life risk for them if they get infected by the highly contagious Ebola virus which is causing havoc in some West African countries," a member of DMSC said.
Ebola virus (EBOV, formerly designated Zaire ebolavirus) is the sole member of the Zaire ebolavirus species, and the most dangerous of the five known viruses within the genus Ebolavirus. Four of the five known ebolaviruses cause a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, known as Ebola virus disease. "Though the disease yet to reach Kolkata but this is an easy way through which the disease be spread and so we are taking all steps to check all measures so that it can be checked before it arrives," the member said. Samarjit Jana of DMSC is presently engaged in training and providing lessons to sex workers to identify the signs of the Ebola disease.
According to WHO guidelines, transmission of the virus requires close contact with body fluids such as sweat, saliva and the cough of an infected person, and also body contact. "So we are training the sex workers on how to identify the symptoms," the member said.
newworldafro
DeeperThanRapBiggerThanHH
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/worl...oot-on-sight-order-in-ebola-wary-liberia.html
Shoot-on-sight order in Ebola-wary Liberia
Published: 8:46 pm, Monday, 18 August 2014
Liberia's armed forces have reportedly been given orders to shoot people trying to illegally cross the border from neighbouring Sierra Leone, which was closed to stem the spread of Ebola.
Soldiers stationed in Bomi and Grand Cape Mount counties, which border Sierra Leone, were to 'shoot on sight' any person trying to cross the border, said deputy chief of staff, Colonel Eric Dennis, according to local newspaper the Daily Observer.
The order comes after border officials reported people continued to cross the porous border illegally.
Grand Cape Mount county had 35 known 'illegal entry points,' according to immigration commander Colonel Samuel Mulbah.
Illegal crossings were a major health threat, said Mulbah, 'because we don't know the health status of those who cross at night'.
Liberia closed its borders with Sierra Leone weeks ago in an attempt to contain the Ebola outbreak, which killed more than 1100 people in west Africa.
The announcement came after residents of a slum near the capital broke into an isolation centre and freed up to 30 Ebola patients, local newspaper Front Page Africa reported.
'As I speak the police station is deserted. There is no security now in West Point,' resident Moses Teah was quoted as saying.
The break-in to protest poor conditions at Ebola quarantine centres has raised fears that the deadly virus will spread in the slum.
'I saw sick people being taken out of the Ebola Centre. Some took them home to care for them,' said Teah.
Other residents, who reportedly continue to deny the existence of Ebola, looted the quarantine centre, stealing patients' mattresses, blood-stained bedding, cooking utensils and medication, according to media reports.
Some Liberians believe the Ebola outbreak was a ploy by government to secure foreign aid, the Daily Observer reported.
Liberians also criticise government for not providing sufficient services to Ebola patients, including health care, food and safe burials.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that a 'massive scaling up of the international response' is necessary to get the outbreak under control.
By August 15, 2127 cases and 1145 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
In Liberia, there were 786 suspected and confirmed cases, according to the WHO, of which 413 people died.
The current outbreak is caused by the most lethal strain in the family of Ebola viruses.
Ebola causes massive haemorrhages and has a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent.
It is transmitted through contact with blood and other body fluids.
- See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/worl...-ebola-wary-liberia.html#sthash.rVAvO6fj.dpuf
Shoot-on-sight order in Ebola-wary Liberia
Published: 8:46 pm, Monday, 18 August 2014
Liberia's armed forces have reportedly been given orders to shoot people trying to illegally cross the border from neighbouring Sierra Leone, which was closed to stem the spread of Ebola.
Soldiers stationed in Bomi and Grand Cape Mount counties, which border Sierra Leone, were to 'shoot on sight' any person trying to cross the border, said deputy chief of staff, Colonel Eric Dennis, according to local newspaper the Daily Observer.
The order comes after border officials reported people continued to cross the porous border illegally.
Grand Cape Mount county had 35 known 'illegal entry points,' according to immigration commander Colonel Samuel Mulbah.
Illegal crossings were a major health threat, said Mulbah, 'because we don't know the health status of those who cross at night'.
Liberia closed its borders with Sierra Leone weeks ago in an attempt to contain the Ebola outbreak, which killed more than 1100 people in west Africa.
The announcement came after residents of a slum near the capital broke into an isolation centre and freed up to 30 Ebola patients, local newspaper Front Page Africa reported.
'As I speak the police station is deserted. There is no security now in West Point,' resident Moses Teah was quoted as saying.
The break-in to protest poor conditions at Ebola quarantine centres has raised fears that the deadly virus will spread in the slum.
'I saw sick people being taken out of the Ebola Centre. Some took them home to care for them,' said Teah.
Other residents, who reportedly continue to deny the existence of Ebola, looted the quarantine centre, stealing patients' mattresses, blood-stained bedding, cooking utensils and medication, according to media reports.
Some Liberians believe the Ebola outbreak was a ploy by government to secure foreign aid, the Daily Observer reported.
Liberians also criticise government for not providing sufficient services to Ebola patients, including health care, food and safe burials.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that a 'massive scaling up of the international response' is necessary to get the outbreak under control.
By August 15, 2127 cases and 1145 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
In Liberia, there were 786 suspected and confirmed cases, according to the WHO, of which 413 people died.
The current outbreak is caused by the most lethal strain in the family of Ebola viruses.
Ebola causes massive haemorrhages and has a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent.
It is transmitted through contact with blood and other body fluids.
- See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/worl...-ebola-wary-liberia.html#sthash.rVAvO6fj.dpuf
newworldafro
DeeperThanRapBiggerThanHH
Technology could bring some hope though..................................................night vision and thermal imaging phone apps .... 
[Video in link]
http://online.wsj.com/articles/smar...ging-1408396425?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_business
Smartphone Add-Ons Offer Thermal Imaging
New Manufacturing Techniques Move Once Costly, Military-Style Night Vision Into Consumer Mainstream
By
DON CLARK
CONNECT
Aug. 18, 2014 5:13 p.m. ET
As thermal cameras become cheap enough to arrive in people's pockets, industry executives predict the tools will be adopted by more professionals like plumbers and electricians. Flir Systems Inc.
Smartphones are getting a new way of seeing.
Thermal imaging, a long-costly technology that lets soldiers see in the dark and firefighters see through smoke, is rapidly moving toward the mainstream with phone add-ons that cost hundreds of dollars rather than thousands.
Flir Systems Inc., FLIR +0.50% one of the best-known manufacturers in the field, in July introduced a $349 iPhone accessory that allows the smartphone's display to show glowing heat signatures of people, animals, lights and other objects. Its Flir One looks a bit like a standard protective case for a smartphone. The camera-equipped black sleeve wraps around an iPhone 5 or 5s, allowing a user to point at objects while viewing images on its display.
Meanwhile, a group of industry veterans at a startup called Seek Thermal this fall plan to begin selling an add-on camera for smartphones for about $100 less. Rather than a sleeve, the company plans to sell a small thermal-camera module that plugs into the bottom of a smartphone. In a recent demonstration, a prototype Seek Thermal camera generated color thermal images that can be contrasted with conventional images using a split-screen feature.
The Flir One case turns an iPhone into a thermal imaging camera. WSJ's Nathan Olivarez-Giles shows you what you can do with "Predator"-like heat vision.
The company, which has said little about its plans previously, is collaborating withRaytheon Co. RTN -0.17% and chip maker Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
The new products reflect a series of improvements in sensors and manufacturing techniques that could ultimately make thermal imaging a built-in feature of many consumer products.
"They are really a very significant advance," said Gabor Fulop, president of Maxtech International, a research firm that tracks the thermal-imaging market. "It's going to really propel the industry."
Such technology is already used for many commercial purposes, such as spotting heat loss in buildings, detecting leaking hot-water pipes and overheating electrical devices. Some high-end cars also use the technology to detect pedestrians or other hazards at night.
But as thermal cameras become cheap enough to arrive in people's pockets, industry executives predict the tools will be adopted by more professionals like plumbers and electricians as well as many consumers. They cite applications that include finding lost pets, playing hide-and-seek, observing wildlife, detecting water leaks, checking whether campfires are put out and spotting intruders.
"I'm here to tell you that we don't know what the real killer application is going to be," said Bill Parrish, Seek Thermal's co-founder and chief technology officer. Thermal imaging measures the intensity of infrared light given off as objects generate heat. It works differently from most "night-vision" goggles, whose green images are generated by amplifying small amounts of visible light. Thermal-imaging cameras require no light at all.
Such cameras began to be used for aerial reconnaissance after World War II. Many of them were developed in Santa Barbara, Calif., where Hughes Aircraft Co. established a research center in the 1950s that is now part of Raytheon. Flir has major operations in the Southern California city, which is also home to Seek Thermal.
The iPhone accessory from Flir Systems uses thermal imaging to show heat signatures on phone's display. Emily Prapuolenis/The Wall Street Journal
Early thermal cameras used liquid nitrogen to cool their detector circuitry to help sense faint differences in thermal signatures. That approach is still used in high-end devices for military and aerospace applications.
More recently, manufacturers have developed less-expensive imaging sensors that don't require special cooling. These microbolometers, as they are called, have an array of pixels that act like tiny thermometers and are packaged in a vacuum.
Flir, founded in 1978, offers nitrogen-cooled equipment from about $50,000 to $1 million, said Andy Teich, its chief executive. But it sells many "uncooled" products for commercial applications, with prices averaging a few thousand dollars, he said.
The Flir One indicates heat patterns using different colors, and can be viewed whether a room is dark or lit. An insulated wall might appear blue, while a person or the space above a door where energy is leaking glows orange.
The Flir One required a series of innovations, Mr. Teich said. Flir reduced manufacturing costs by fabricating many thermal sensors once on eight-inch silicon wafers, and combined many components used to process infrared images onto a single chip. The Flir One's thermal camera—a device called Lepton that the company is marketing to other hardware makers— is augmented by a standard camera and other technology to make images more distinct. "It brings a tremendous amount of detail," Mr. Teich said.
Such cameras can't see through walls, into houses, or through glass, since each surface radiates heat of its own. Depending on the material, however, heat behind or near a surface may show through.
"It's very hard to hide from a thermal imager," said Tim Fitzgibbons, who started Seek Thermal with Mr. Parrish. "You can't get behind a bush—you will show up."
Seek Thermal is changing its name from Tyrian Systems. Messrs. Parrish and Fitzgibbons previously led a company called Indigo Systems that Flir bought in 2003.
Mr. Fitzgibbons credits Raytheon for fabricating unusually small microbolometer pixels to achieve high resolution and reduce the sensor costs. Seek Thermal also claims a unique technique for avoiding a calibration process that typically adds four to six hours to the manufacturing process.
ging companies to exploit the kinds of advances that have reduced the price and increased the resolution on conventional digital cameras. He predicts the market for uncooled thermal devices—roughly flat between 2011 and 2013—will double to nearly $4 billion by 2019. "We are behind where digital cameras are, but we are catching up," said Stefan Bauer, general manager of Raytheon Vision Systems in Santa Barbara.
Raytheon plans to transfer results of its collaboration with Freescale into military and commercial products. Freescale, which will manufacture the sensor chips, may focus on automotive applications.
Fire departments—which use thermal imaging to find people in smoke as well as making sure flames are fully extinguished—are likely to benefit, said Ronald Jon Siarnicki, executive director of the National Fallen Firefighters Association.
At the costs of $6,000 to $10,000 for handheld thermal devices, he said, most fire departments can't afford many of them.
"This will allow every firefighter at some point to have it," he said.
[Video in link]http://online.wsj.com/articles/smar...ging-1408396425?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_business
Smartphone Add-Ons Offer Thermal Imaging
New Manufacturing Techniques Move Once Costly, Military-Style Night Vision Into Consumer Mainstream
By
DON CLARK
CONNECT
Aug. 18, 2014 5:13 p.m. ET
As thermal cameras become cheap enough to arrive in people's pockets, industry executives predict the tools will be adopted by more professionals like plumbers and electricians. Flir Systems Inc.
Smartphones are getting a new way of seeing.
Thermal imaging, a long-costly technology that lets soldiers see in the dark and firefighters see through smoke, is rapidly moving toward the mainstream with phone add-ons that cost hundreds of dollars rather than thousands.
Flir Systems Inc., FLIR +0.50% one of the best-known manufacturers in the field, in July introduced a $349 iPhone accessory that allows the smartphone's display to show glowing heat signatures of people, animals, lights and other objects. Its Flir One looks a bit like a standard protective case for a smartphone. The camera-equipped black sleeve wraps around an iPhone 5 or 5s, allowing a user to point at objects while viewing images on its display.
Meanwhile, a group of industry veterans at a startup called Seek Thermal this fall plan to begin selling an add-on camera for smartphones for about $100 less. Rather than a sleeve, the company plans to sell a small thermal-camera module that plugs into the bottom of a smartphone. In a recent demonstration, a prototype Seek Thermal camera generated color thermal images that can be contrasted with conventional images using a split-screen feature.
The Flir One case turns an iPhone into a thermal imaging camera. WSJ's Nathan Olivarez-Giles shows you what you can do with "Predator"-like heat vision.
The company, which has said little about its plans previously, is collaborating withRaytheon Co. RTN -0.17% and chip maker Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
The new products reflect a series of improvements in sensors and manufacturing techniques that could ultimately make thermal imaging a built-in feature of many consumer products.
"They are really a very significant advance," said Gabor Fulop, president of Maxtech International, a research firm that tracks the thermal-imaging market. "It's going to really propel the industry."
Such technology is already used for many commercial purposes, such as spotting heat loss in buildings, detecting leaking hot-water pipes and overheating electrical devices. Some high-end cars also use the technology to detect pedestrians or other hazards at night.
But as thermal cameras become cheap enough to arrive in people's pockets, industry executives predict the tools will be adopted by more professionals like plumbers and electricians as well as many consumers. They cite applications that include finding lost pets, playing hide-and-seek, observing wildlife, detecting water leaks, checking whether campfires are put out and spotting intruders.
"I'm here to tell you that we don't know what the real killer application is going to be," said Bill Parrish, Seek Thermal's co-founder and chief technology officer. Thermal imaging measures the intensity of infrared light given off as objects generate heat. It works differently from most "night-vision" goggles, whose green images are generated by amplifying small amounts of visible light. Thermal-imaging cameras require no light at all.
Such cameras began to be used for aerial reconnaissance after World War II. Many of them were developed in Santa Barbara, Calif., where Hughes Aircraft Co. established a research center in the 1950s that is now part of Raytheon. Flir has major operations in the Southern California city, which is also home to Seek Thermal.
The iPhone accessory from Flir Systems uses thermal imaging to show heat signatures on phone's display. Emily Prapuolenis/The Wall Street Journal
Early thermal cameras used liquid nitrogen to cool their detector circuitry to help sense faint differences in thermal signatures. That approach is still used in high-end devices for military and aerospace applications.
More recently, manufacturers have developed less-expensive imaging sensors that don't require special cooling. These microbolometers, as they are called, have an array of pixels that act like tiny thermometers and are packaged in a vacuum.
Flir, founded in 1978, offers nitrogen-cooled equipment from about $50,000 to $1 million, said Andy Teich, its chief executive. But it sells many "uncooled" products for commercial applications, with prices averaging a few thousand dollars, he said.
The Flir One indicates heat patterns using different colors, and can be viewed whether a room is dark or lit. An insulated wall might appear blue, while a person or the space above a door where energy is leaking glows orange.
The Flir One required a series of innovations, Mr. Teich said. Flir reduced manufacturing costs by fabricating many thermal sensors once on eight-inch silicon wafers, and combined many components used to process infrared images onto a single chip. The Flir One's thermal camera—a device called Lepton that the company is marketing to other hardware makers— is augmented by a standard camera and other technology to make images more distinct. "It brings a tremendous amount of detail," Mr. Teich said.
Such cameras can't see through walls, into houses, or through glass, since each surface radiates heat of its own. Depending on the material, however, heat behind or near a surface may show through.
"It's very hard to hide from a thermal imager," said Tim Fitzgibbons, who started Seek Thermal with Mr. Parrish. "You can't get behind a bush—you will show up."
Seek Thermal is changing its name from Tyrian Systems. Messrs. Parrish and Fitzgibbons previously led a company called Indigo Systems that Flir bought in 2003.
Mr. Fitzgibbons credits Raytheon for fabricating unusually small microbolometer pixels to achieve high resolution and reduce the sensor costs. Seek Thermal also claims a unique technique for avoiding a calibration process that typically adds four to six hours to the manufacturing process.
ging companies to exploit the kinds of advances that have reduced the price and increased the resolution on conventional digital cameras. He predicts the market for uncooled thermal devices—roughly flat between 2011 and 2013—will double to nearly $4 billion by 2019. "We are behind where digital cameras are, but we are catching up," said Stefan Bauer, general manager of Raytheon Vision Systems in Santa Barbara.
Raytheon plans to transfer results of its collaboration with Freescale into military and commercial products. Freescale, which will manufacture the sensor chips, may focus on automotive applications.
Fire departments—which use thermal imaging to find people in smoke as well as making sure flames are fully extinguished—are likely to benefit, said Ronald Jon Siarnicki, executive director of the National Fallen Firefighters Association.
At the costs of $6,000 to $10,000 for handheld thermal devices, he said, most fire departments can't afford many of them.
"This will allow every firefighter at some point to have it," he said.
GetInTheTruck
Member
Bat meat? How common is that?
Mr. Somebody
Friend Of A Friend
Someone has waged war on these nations for prospering.
newworldafro
DeeperThanRapBiggerThanHH
It does feel like Birdman and Dr. Evil did a collabo project..........a lil convenient ..
The is fukking scary man. I had my tinfoil hat on earlier, so I thought it was an odd coincidence that the moment Nigeria began to embrace nationalism all of a sudden you had the boko haram kidnapping fiasco, the terrorist bombings and now this. Just seems like the perfect trifecta of things to destabilize one of Africa's most prosperous regions
if the tinfoil fits, wear it
