Illumination and imaging devices and methods

A thermal torch (12) comprises an infrared camera (22) and a visible light emitter (28, 26) arranged so as to illuminate hot objects with visible light. This projection of visible light onto the scene, rather than observing it at infrared wavelengths converted to visible light by a display screen, makes viewing the scene more natural. Applications include medical imaging equipment, night driving systems, stage lights, and security lights. The profile of the beam of visible light can be modulated with a beam profiler (26) which may be a LCD. The infrared camera (22) and visible projector (28,26) may be bore-sighted to facilitate overlying of the visible projected image onto the scene.