What it is

Bullard TacSight SE35 Thermal Imager

Who uses it

Police officers and crime scene investigators

Those old night-vision goggles? Kid stuff. All they do is amplify low light. If you really want to see things, grab this handheld thermal-imaging camera, which can spot a person in absolute darkness at 1,000 feet or reveal hidden objects in the light of day. Its sensor's amorphous silicon pixels respond to infrared radiation, showing differences in surface temperature down to half a degree centigrade. The 3.5-pound TacSight is also rugged, waterproof, and portable (early military versions had a cumbersome cooling system). Police generally use it for spotting perps and evidence: A gun tossed into the woods, for example, shows up when the metal absorbs solar energy. But the $15,000 cam has proved handy for tracking, too. When someone stole a front-end loader in Cheney, Kentucky, last year, a quick-thinking sergeant trained the TacSight on the roadway. "I saw their tracks," the officer said, "as if God himself had painted arrows on the roadway." Amen.