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Patrick Wheelock brings years of diverse experience with motion picture special effects prop construction, law enforcement and electrical engineering to a rational, scientific-based study of the paranormal. |
AS WE WATCH ghost hunting shows on TV, there seems to be a new toy introduced that the watching audience lusts after. Only a few years ago, the "Holy Grail of ghost hunting equipment" was the IR (Infrared) thermometer according to one show. Unfortunately for that show and those that followed, the early flawed use of the IR thermometer has been proven it absolutely useless when operated in the same manner as the personalities.
Once the IR thermometer was pushed from the top of the Holy Grail list, a new piece of equipment emerged. The FLIR or thermal imaging camera has punched its way into the number one position and has maintained that position since if you take ghost hunting TV shows as the gospel, of course.
First off, the FLIR Thermal Imager is on average 250 times the cost of the IR thermometer which in itself, gives it a mysterious aura to those that can't afford to shell-out multiple thousands to acquire one. Also, remember the first time you saw colorful thermal screen shot eye candy blasted over your big screen? TV shows gravitate to what the audience perceives as "cool" in order to capture attention and gain ratings. Unfortunately, viewers are subject to the ratings game as opposed to reasonable scientific procedures and data collection in these entertainment shows.
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Ice water held by Patrick Wheelock within a spray bottle and lit candles were the opposing thermal elements used in imaging experiments aboard the Queen Mary. Click "tests" tab above to view full test videos. |
Don't get me wrong, when used properly during investigators, the IR thermometer, thermal imagers and other devices are valuable means of data collection. Do these tools prove a ghost is there? Not that I have been able to see so far, but what they do provide is a data base of circumstances that we can log and later study in hopes that at some point, we can put a few of the pieces of the paranormal puzzle together.
The FLIR specifically is not without its own issues as we have witnessed on many occasions with TV shows that use them as evidence-gathering devices. First, the FLIR is highly subject to heat signature reflections. The many surfaces that we have been able to test one on indicate that not just mirror, glass or shiny metal cause a reflection effect. We have seen that very porous surfaces are just as likely to cause a false thermal signature when scanning an area.
Furthermore, we have run many tests with several models of FLIR Systems imagers and the results seem to indicate that a lack of mass will cause the FLIR to faintly, if at all, register a thermal change. Our tests with Matthew prove that the FLIR Model EX300 requires objects of significant mass within an scanned area to register a thermal signature.