may be accomplished by implementing the thermal image generation device 130 with a touch screen keypad or another input mechanism referring to fig3 a and 3b exemplary block diagrams of a detailed embodiment of the thermal image generation device 130 of fig1 or 2 is shown the thermal image generation device 130 comprises a casing 300 made of a rigid material such as hardened plastic the casing 300 provides a cavity for housing logic e g thermal transfer element s processor thermal sensor s etc and protecting such logic from damage caused by environmental conditions one surface 310 of the casing 300 features a screen 320 made of a semi opaque material having a transparent or translucent quality e g glass plastic etc a thermochromic film 330 is attached to the screen 320 as shown in fig3 b for this embodiment the thermochromic film 330 is applied to a bottom surface 325 of the screen 320 by a lamination process of course other application techniques may be utilized referring back to fig3 a a side surface 315 of the casing 300 enables a connector port 340 to be accessible through the casing 300 for instance in one embodiment the connector port 340 may be configured to receive an adapter to the link 110 e g ethernet adapter that enables communications over the network 100 as shown in fig1 alternatively the connector port 340 may include.