I am an engineer with an ambitious project but limited resources. On this project we want to find out if its possible to make a decent thermal image from a old cheap notebook webcam. The main goal is taking static heath gradient from power supply PCBs. Tho meet this goal we can average multiple pictures and calibrate the emission coefficient of every component on view taking a long exposure image of the board (on isothermal conditions) before any actual measurement.

Another technique to calibrate the proposed setup is to put on frame two points at different but known temperatures to use as reference points.

A must do is obviously remove the IR filter in the cam prior to use, and operate the device in a dark room (without ambient light).

This project is in a early stage, in the coming weeks we will start to upload content and measurements.