Imagine you are inside your home and an intruder breaks in through the front door. What do you want to do first?

 

Some people might rush to the windows to close them, or possibly go for a weapon of some sort. Others might think about whether it’s possible for them to run upstairs and lock themselves in their bedroom until the police arrive. And then there are those who choose either option, but have a plan for what they’ll do next if their plan is unsuccessful.

 

Having a plan is important, but so is knowing what you’ll do in case that plan fails.

 

Thermal imaging, remote sensors, and thermal cameras have changed surveillance of our homes. They have made protecting our families a more challenging task for homeowners. Traditional glass used for home windows and doors can be defeated by these technologies, leaving our families exposed to security threats. Because of this some photographers choose to view the world from behind their own lens because they know traditional glass can be a physical barrier that separates then from the world outside their cameras’ viewfinders. This can be a bitter pill to swallow for someone who has made a life-long commitment to the visual arts.

 

The good news is that there are now solutions for homeowners that protect their homes from thermal imaging and other technologies used by potential intruders. There are glass solutions that use micro-encapsulated security glass with built in opaque layers. 

 

Polarized glass provides excellent protection for your home, is virtually invisible to the human eye, and is also clear where it protects your children from dangerous hazards.

 

If you were to decide to use traditional glass for a window or door in your home, you would be placing yourself and your family at great risk. This can be especially true if that window or door faces a wall and allows entry into the room from the outside.

 

As we all know, security concerns are on many people’s minds these days. I’ve had many conversations about this topic with friends, family and clients with whom I’ve worked. Many of these conversations have concluded that if you want to be secure from intruders, you should either use polarized glass in all the places vulnerable to IR, or better yet, just get a dog.

 

Window and door security is only one of the many concerns we have as homeowners regarding our homes and the things we put in them. There are concerns about smoke detectors that won’t wake us up on time, our home phones that don’t work properly, or inside a closet where unwanted intruders may find us when they break into your house. These are the concerns that people have when we talk about security in our homes.

 

The material used is a micro-encapsulated optical polymer with an opaque layer between two plates of transparent polycarbonate film. The two film layers are separated by a 1.6mm air space. The opaque layer is made from a glass by-product, which protects the inside of your home from IR and other technologies used to spy on your home.

 

The film contains several layers: A thin crystalline core structure, an ultraviolet block layer, a visible light transmission blocking layer, and then an infrared-light blocking layer. These layers are made of polycarbonate and embedded within them is the micro-encapsulated technology that provides built-in protection against IR and thermal imaging cameras that can pierce through traditional glass. The result is glass that passes visible light while protecting you from those technologies used to spy on your life at night.

 

Conclusion

We all have a need to define our space and protect ourselves, but not all of us have the means to do so through traditional glass. This can be very frustrating. The same technology used to protect cell phones also protects your home. It’s a solution that is invisible to the human eye and provides you with peace of mind knowing that your family is safe inside their home, when they are sleeping and when they are awake. 

 

There is no better way to win friends and influence people than thoughtfully protecting your loved ones from harm, while keeping unimpeded views of their activities through clear glass that allows you access into the world outside of their sight.