A special camera from Cantronics sees heat. The technology is called infrared thermography or thermal imaging. We got a close up look at Network Designs in Vienna, Virginia.

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"As you can see, the temperature does change based on the point of the object we choose," says Gregory Conran, Network Designs CTO. He's lining up the crosshairs on different parts of my body. Luckily, there's not a little red Laser sight to make me nervous.

Thermal imaging has been used in medicine, and recently has been put into service at airports to screen travelers for SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Those afflicted typically have high fevers that the camera can detect from 20-50 feet away. "They are being used in airports, entry and exit environments, cruise ships or large gatherings of people. Medical institutions are using them - any location where you care to have peoples' temperatures analyzed for possible fevers," says Conran.

The camera and software work together to map what the camera sees. The system can instantly show temperature changes of a tenth of a degree. The temperatures displayed in this demo were in Celsius.

To give me an extreme example, the folks at Network Designs offer me a cup of hot coffee. The heat shows up as white on the screen. I take a sip, open my mouth, it's white as well, then cools off.

Then I take a cup of ice water. It's cold and appears blue on the screen. A big gulp, open my mouth, the temperature of my mouth falls then goes back up, the screen color changing as well.

The camera can be put into a monitoring mode to respond when it "sees" a certain temperature. "As a person moves in to that range, the camera can be configured to beep or sound an alert or give another audible alarm that tells you that a certain temperature has been reached."

It can take a snapshot or alert other authorities.

The camera also is being used by the U.S. Navy at overseas commands to sense objects several miles away. How small?

"Small boat down to the size of any floating object, manmade or otherwise," says Kevin McGreevy, Executive VP of Network Designs.

To quote a Dan Rather book, "The camera doesn't blink." It's always looking for anything that has a heat signature. Current units run about $35,000 dollars. If/when prices come down, this technology could wind up in childcare centers to confirm the "little one' has a fever when he's brought in, or networked in with "Nanny cams" so parents can see for themselves that Johnny is running a temperature.