Infrared thermography has been used for decades by skilled, trained users in a huge range of applications, from structural surveying of buildings through to electromechanical fault diagnosis, from tracking wild animals to clandestine military activities.
Ask any seasoned thermographer and they’ll regale you with tales of expensive, finicky equipment that had to be treated with kid gloves, was bulky and chomped through batteries. It wasn’t long ago that thermographic cameras had their own specialised on-board cooling systems.