NIST Technical Note 1630 Evaluation of Image Quality of Thermal Imagers used bythe Fire Service

Five different fire service thermal imagers were evaluated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Fire Research Division using performance metrics and testing protocols that were developed specifically for evaluating thermal imaging cameras utilized by firefighters, many of which have subsequently been integrated into Draft NFPA 1801 Standard on Thermal Imagers for the Fire Service [1]. The performance metrics for these tests were Field of View (FOV), Nonuniformity (NU), Spatial Resolution (SR), Effective Temperature Range (ETR), and Thermal Sensitivity (TS).