
FLIR – Thermal Imaging Device for iPhone 5 - ry0ohki
http://www.flir.com/US/
======
hoopism
Relevant:

Turn cheap FLIR into expensive FLIR imager:
[http://hackaday.com/2013/11/04/manufacturer-crippled-
flir-e4...](http://hackaday.com/2013/11/04/manufacturer-crippled-
flir-e4-thermal-camera-hacked-to-perform-as-high-end-model/)

Kickstart Phone Thermal Imaging: [http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mu-
thermal-camera-a-great-...](http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mu-thermal-
camera-a-great-tool-to-save-on-energy-costs)

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andyrawson/ir-blue-
therm...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andyrawson/ir-blue-thermal-
imaging-smartphone-accessory?ref=card)

~~~
smackfu
From that indiegogo, this kind of thing always gives me pause: "We'll send you
a Mµ Optics Thermal Imager for $125. ... This represents $200 off the MSRP."

~~~
hoopism
Not endorsing... I just had looked into some options awhile back.

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smackfu
Oh, I was just talking about selling something at or below cost initially but
then having a much higher MSRP, then saying that "clearly there's a market
there." Just seems like a lot more people would buy this as a fun accessory at
$125 than $300.

~~~
ynniv
100% markup is pretty standard on nice hardware.

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devindotcom
I took of pic of one in action last night:

[http://imgur.com/vT4vl2o](http://imgur.com/vT4vl2o)

Seemed pretty responsive. Good enough to capture the residual temperature from
someone touching a table. Not pro level stuff obviously but worth exploring
for basic thermal imaging applications it seemed to me.

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dsego
Good enough for seeing what PIN was typed on the atm machine?

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blacksmith_tb
You mean, so you can 1) mug the cardholder, and 2) try all the 4x4
combinations (or 5x5 for mine), which I believe will get the card eaten after
a small number of failures? Seems like it would be much useful for snooping
pinpad door lock codes, which often don't seem to care how many errors you
enter in a short period.

~~~
dsego
Good point. Real criminals attach an inconspicuous cam and a skimmer to the
machine.

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nwh
All down to the resolution. Judging by the product binning on the rest of
their cameras, this will be a 4x4 pixel sensor.

The real URL for this submission should be —
[http://www.flir.com/flirone/](http://www.flir.com/flirone/)

~~~
fennecfoxen
While they didn't say anything about the specs of the infrared part, the
device seems to include a VGA camera for the multi-spectrum blending mode. If
the infrared camera is similar... well, it won't win your infrared photography
any awards at the art show, but it's not the worst.

Postscript: A nearby link to Hackaday talks about a 320x240 resolution that
was firmware-limited to some fraction of that on the cheaper model. I'm going
to throw out a wild-ass guess that they'll have a similar sensor here.

~~~
nwh
It'll probably be the exact same sensor, the question is can the software be
hacked to make it anywhere near useful? If it's cheaper than their cheapest
normal camera (it is) we can only assume it will have a significantly lower
gimped resolution as a result.

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dfc
Imaging is going to be the next "big" ITAR battleground. I think the "Camera
Wars" will stir up more public controversy than what we had with the Crypto
Wars.

 _Crypto is not the only munition in disguise._

~~~
teuobk
Thermal imaging sensors have been export-restricted for some time, though the
details depend on the type of sensor. Here's a handy chart from DRS
Technologies, which makes thermal sensors:

[http://www.drsinfrared.com/Support/ExportGuidelines.aspx](http://www.drsinfrared.com/Support/ExportGuidelines.aspx)

~~~
dfc
I recognize that there have been imaging restrictions in place for some time.
It is not just thermal imaging, there is a frames per second ceiling, but I do
not recall the number. I think the "Camera Wars" are around the corner because
the prices are coming down dramatically not because of new legislation.

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kscottz
As someone who has spent the past month fighting with FLIR customer support to
get a $5000 camera working robustly and correctly I doubt that this will be a
good product. We have dozens of FLIR cameras and at least a quarter of them
have been sent back for re-calibration. We're about to send one out for the
second time. Also, forget about open source support.

~~~
devindotcom
This is meant to be pretty basic. Can you think of anything that could replace
it? It seemed to work well when I demoed it, but for pro stuff obviously you
wouldn't want to rely on it.

~~~
kscottz
The FLIR machine vision cameras for industrial applications are driving me
nuts. To a degree all machine vision cameras can be persnikety when you want
to try and use them with FOSS software like ROS. Right now we are fighting
with non-uniform correction of the cameras. Basically this is the camera's
auto exposure. It consistently gets all out of whack. Also the GigE IP stack
on the camera was a righteous bitch to get working. Once you buy the camera
you have to spend a small fortune for an GigE SDK that doesn't even work on
anything but CentOS. We ended spending a whole weekend doing some basic kernel
patches to get the damn thing to kinda work on Ubuntu.

All of this is to say, it will probably work, but don't plan on building
after-market apps on top of the camera technology.

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RankingMember
For some reason I'm tickled that the security application of this add-on is
illustrated by a man lurking around the side of a Scion xB in a parking lot,
as though the user constantly has the app up and is holding the camera in
front of them everywhere they go.

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aaronem
Shouldn't this be titled "A FLIR camera for your iPhone 5", or something? It's
a backpack, not a modification of the phone itself.

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cjoh
I'm reluctant to buy something like this that'll become useless the moment I
decide to change/upgrade phones.

~~~
userbinator
Agree, plain USB (i.e. something like a webcam) would be a much better
interface.

On the other hand, if this really catches on, and the sensor technology
cheapens, in a decade or two we may start to see generic webcam-like thermal
cameras from China showing up in the $10 range... which would be rather fun.

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smackfu
Interesting that they aren't using the built-in iPhone camera for the visual
spectrum part, but are still using their own. (FLIR uses a visual spectrum
camera to do edge detection, and then overlays that on the IR image to make it
easier to see what is going on.)

~~~
fennecfoxen
This way the visible and IR cameras are right next to each other.

~~~
fancyketchup
And they don't have to worry whether the two cameras are pointed in the same
direction. And they don't have to worry about the pointing shifting over time.

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callmeed
What distances is something like this accurate to?

I just ordered a 3DRobotics Iris and I'm interested in mounting some
thermal/IR/multi-spectral imaging to it ... could something like this work
from the sky?

~~~
devindotcom
I tested one out last night a little bit, guy said it was about half as
accurate as a normal retail FLIR model (accuracy in temp differentiation,
which surely has an effect on distance). Here's a pic:

[http://imgur.com/vT4vl2o](http://imgur.com/vT4vl2o)

I was too absent minded to ask about distance specifically.

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seanalltogether
Is there anyone that does photography where the R in RGB is replaced by
thermal values? I've always been curious what the world would look like if our
red cones were replaced with a thermal cone cell.

~~~
001sky
There is multi layer (channel) color infra-red film that does what you are
asking. Ad for digital, the technology is slightly different, but explained
here:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_photography#Digital_c...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_photography#Digital_cameras)

With modified D200s being one choice,

[http://gmv.cast.uark.edu/photogrammetry/photogrammetry-
hardw...](http://gmv.cast.uark.edu/photogrammetry/photogrammetry-
hardware/nikon-d200-ir/)

and this another:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FinePix_IS_Pro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FinePix_IS_Pro)

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benbojangles
If anyone can send me a sample of the Lepton camera module so I can connect it
to my microquad, that would be awesome. Message me if you can help.thx
seedmediacreative@gmail.com

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ramses0
I wish they mentioned pricing. Of course IR cameras exist, the thing that
makes it interesting is how much it might cost.

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ry0ohki
Says "under $350"
[http://www.flir.com/flirone/press/assets/Discover/FLIR%20ONE...](http://www.flir.com/flirone/press/assets/Discover/FLIR%20ONE_Launch%20Release_FINAL.pdf)

~~~
mikegreen
The i7, one of the lower priced units is around $2k, so if it can do the same
thing (appears to be the same resolution) it is a win.

~~~
arrrg
What makes those cameras so expensive? I assume it’s the customer base
(industrial applications, small customer base compared to the consumer market)
that makes them expensive, not so much the cost of actually making them at
scale.

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001sky
[http://www.flir.com/flirone/](http://www.flir.com/flirone/)

is the more direct link.

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gchokov
Why would anyone need this?

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esw
I have a 100 year old house that I've been remodeling, and this would enable
me to easily find air leaks. I'm skeptical that it will enable me to find
studs through horsehair plaster (they show visible studs in the gallery), but
it will certainly make it easier to locate the position of forced hot water
pipes in the walls and ceilings.

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bronson
You can clearly see the studs in in the second picture:

[http://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-
imagin...](http://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-
camera-teardown/msg345222/#msg345222)

That's a 1927 house with plaster & lath walls.

~~~
angersock
I like this application--would be handy for anybody doing repairs.

