Flir thermal sensors aid police in capturing Boston bombing suspect

Last Monday morning two bomb blasts went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. By Friday night the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was in police custody. After he survived a gunfight with police and slipped out of a dragnet, Massachusetts State Police finally spotted him via a thermal imaging technology manufactured by Flir.
April 23, 2013 Read time: 1 min
Dan Dietrich of FLIR
Last Monday morning two bomb blasts went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. By Friday night the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was in police custody.

After he survived a gunfight with police and slipped out of a dragnet, Massachusetts State Police finally spotted him via a thermal imaging technology manufactured by 6778 FLIR.

Flir thermal sensors can see clearly regardless of lighting or weather conditions. The suspect was hiding in a boat, under a tarp, but the thermal sensor was able to provide a clear view because it could detect his body heat.

“The technology used to view the bomb suspect is the same Flir technology used in traffic management,” says Dan Dietrich, Flir business development manager for traffic & ITS.

For example, Flir thermal imaging can be used in automated incident detection, pedestrian detection and bicycle detection.

Flir thermal imaging is a combination of Flir's 165 thermal sensors and an algorithm optimised for thermal imaging by Traficon, which was acquired by Flir in December.

%$Linker: 2 Asset <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 4 77400 0 oLinkAsset <span class="mouselink">www.FLIR.com</span> www.flir.com false /EasySiteWeb/GatewayLink.aspx?alId=77400 false false%>

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Dresden Elektronik shows deZign electronic timetable
    March 25, 2014
    Germany company Dresden Elektronik is showcasing its deZign electronic timetabling technology for the first time here at Intertraffic. Using flexible plastic displays from Plastic Logic, the monochrome deZign display allows traditional paper timetables to be replaced at the push of a button. The solution is robust, daylight-readable and low power – fixed content requires no power, while text changes require only minimal energy.
    Read More
  • CAMEA WIM is type approved and turnkey for weigh-in-motion
    October 23, 2012
    CAMEA WIM, developed and manufactured by CAMEA image and signal processing, is a turnkey solution for weigh-in-motion applications, from traffic reports to enforcement. According to CAMEA, the high speed system allows vehicles thought to be overloaded to be pre-selected and directed to a precise weigh station without impact on traffic flow. The CAMEA WIM – type approved for weight enforcement in the Czech Republic – also provides rich sets of traffic data in database format for export in standard formats.
    Read More
  • Siemens adds to portfolio of ITS technologies
    September 8, 2014
    This morning Siemens is using the ITS World Congress for the launch of three important new additions to its portfolio of intelligent traffic systems that will power our cities today and in the future.
    Read More
  • Intertraffic introduction to Tönnjes’ technology
    March 24, 2014
    The Tönnjes Group is displaying its latest range of licence plate and windscreen labels with an integrated RFID-chip. Vehicle-specific data in the IDePLATE and IDeSTIX can be read by a variety of fixed and mobile radio devices. Visitors to the company’s stand will also be able to view its IDeTRUST software system for vehicle registration and verification and can enable verification via smartphones and other connected devices.
    Read More

Highlighted Content