Forgive my ignorance, but if this system would require liquid nitrogen cooling to detect heat from a human, how do commercial (now almost cheap) thermal cameras work? Are they not sensing IR? The can certainly distinguish the different temperatures of different people, without needing to be cooled themselves. How is this system better than a commercial IR camera -- besides the very obvious and valid reason that this…
Higher-quality IR imaging equipment is photodetector based (as in, they operate on the photoelectric effect); these require very low temperatures to operate and need the sort of active cooling the author refers to.
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermographic_camera , which goes into detail on the different technologies involved.