
Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging - uphoff
http://gizmodo.com/caterpillars-new-s60-is-the-first-smartphone-with-flir-1759685817?sf44639276=1
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verytrivial
This is perhaps the first actually interesting sensor/add-on I've seen for a
phone. I'm picturing myself running around the outside of my house looking for
hot-spots to re-insulate and hence justify to my partner the purchase price of
the device. Or hot electronic components. Or playing a TSA creep and looking
for ill people on public transport. What fun! (I hope other manufacturer's
race in to this market.)

~~~
JulianMorrison
Or vampires. It's gonna really suck for vampires once these are in iPhones.
>:-[

~~~
bryanrasmussen
but vampires can't have their pictures taken, so I have to assume they can't
be sensed through a phone in any way whatsoever.

~~~
JulianMorrison
Room temperature on the FLIR or invisible on the regular camera, one way or
another they're in the soup.

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hudibras
Yet another tech toy I didn't know existed until 3 minutes ago but that I now
desperately, desperately want to buy.

Edit: Also, not going to lie, my #1 use of the IR camera will be for real-time
fart detection.

~~~
eplanit
My curiosity outweighs my hesitation: what do you plan to do in response upon
detecting a fart in real-time? I'm picturing Nelson Muntz...

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JorgeGT
For any makers out there, remember that FLIR sells a dev kit with their Lepton
sensor (the one used in this phone). So if you are interested in IR
applications you can create them yourself:
[https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13233](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13233)

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vedaprodarte
3GB RAM and Snapdragon Octa-core processor! Finally Caterpillar improves the
specification of its smartphone. Its processing power is closer to ordinary
consumer phones! In the past, I wondered why Caterpillar used weaker processor
and less RAM than consumer phones. I believe people working in industrial area
also need a powerful phone for their work. Am I right?

PS: I think 720p resolution on a 4.7" monitor is good enough. Acceptable for
media consumption already.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
Yeah, I'm amused by the idea that a 4.7" screen with nearly the same
resolution as the 13" laptop I'm using right now is somehow insufficient for
media.

~~~
creshal
But how will you watch 4K video streams on the go, when you don't have a 4K
screen to admire the "Buffering…" notification?

~~~
vedaprodarte
I like your comment. But before you can load the buffering icon, you have run
out of mobile data.

I think most users do not own a 4K monitor at home or in their companies. I am
not sure if 4K recording/ decoding is useful in this period.

~~~
pjc50
I only just got my first proper HD monitor at home, and we have exactly one 4K
monitor at work for compatibility testing.

Versions of Windows earlier than 10 do display scaling badly, so having a very
high resolution monitor can be unusable.

~~~
ygra
Doesn't Windows 10 just add better scaling for multiple screens with different
pixel densities? Normal high-dpi support was IMHO quite sufficient since Vista
(of course, oftentimes depending on the application).

~~~
creshal
In 7 at least it's completely useless, because "depending on the application"
means it works nowhere. Not even Windows' own UI is consistently scaled, never
mind random third party applications.

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scrollaway
I really like the design of that phone. There is a "mechanical" look and feel
to it, very different to the usual glossy/flat high end phones of today.
Anyone else feel the same way?

~~~
dingo_bat
I would love to buy a flagship that looks like this. Similarly, I love the
black, rugged look of thinkpads of yore. Nowadays everything is becoming
shiny.

~~~
creshal
Thinkpads are still black bricks, though. Just fibre-reinforced plastic bricks
instead of magnesium bricks.

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agumonkey
I recently heard that Panasonic released Toughpads.
[http://www.pcworld.com/article/3036176/phones/panasonic-
anno...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/3036176/phones/panasonic-announces-
two-heavy-duty-smartphones.html)

~~~
cfontes
But it's from Panasonic...

~~~
agumonkey
They have decades of experience in rugged computers, their toughbook laptops
are the sturdiest commercial devices I know of (some videos on youtube are
jawdropping)

~~~
brbsix
This tablet torture test is insane. What a fun project that must have been.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id4Mvp316p8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id4Mvp316p8)

~~~
agumonkey
It's cute but it's all kids play (althought the -4 to 140 step, and the
pristine look at the end was cool).

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n6mX8Q1waA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n6mX8Q1waA)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bb2QexOTl4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bb2QexOTl4)
(beware, high moronism)

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ck2
Anyone old enough to remember how Sony's nightvision camcorders allowed people
to see through some clothing?

All these new thermal devices are totally going to be abused for that.

Yup, already being done [https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-
media/image/upload/tmpdnsytzm...](https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-
media/image/upload/tmpdnsytzmvpa6cz9meu.jpg)

~~~
eru
I don't really see through any clothing there..

~~~
ck2
Thermal can "see through" some dark clothing if the visible filter is removed
from the camera (or negated by another filter) and the clothing is against the
body releasing heat.

At least that's how the Sony hacked worked.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU1BN0pSVi8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU1BN0pSVi8)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXAzZoWLzSo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXAzZoWLzSo)

So these cameras just need a small mod. But even without the mod, the right
clothing will probably spark a very horrible subreddit someday soon.

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mschuster91
I own the B15Q... a pity the new one doesn't come with a hackable Mediatek
processor but a Snapdragon instead.

I hope that at least this time they manage to release the AOSP and kernel,
which they didn't for the B15(Q)...

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guidop
Someone had to do it. A social network for iPhone FLIR-one thermal videos.
[https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1042703406?ct=null&pt=null&mt...](https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1042703406?ct=null&pt=null&mt=8).
Enjoy!

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blt
Cool product. Nextel back in the day showed that there's a market for rugged
phones like this. I'm curious why the low resolution though, seems like the
cpu should be fast enough to handle 1080p.

~~~
spiderfarmer
Here in the Netherlands the CAT branded phones are _very_ popular among
construction workers, even though they have low resolution screens, Android
versions that are a couple of generations behind and (surprisingly) batteries
that can't be replaced. Raw specs are not that important in this market.

~~~
vlehto
I've worked in construction and I use a Nokia dumbphone. The reason for it is
that I need to answer calls quickly while at work. So the phone has to be in a
pocket close by. And it's likely that most pockets "close by" also have some
sand in them.

Nobody has money to buy new iPhone every two months. But it's manageable to
buy new dumbphone once a year.

~~~
creshal
Similarly I've been scrambling to keep finding new feature phones with rubber-
sealed keypads for my dad (car mechanic).

Every seam is an invitation for steel dust, and touch screens are useless when
you're wearing thick work gloves.

~~~
exDM69
How about the Cat B100? [http://www.catphones.com/en-
gb/phones/b100](http://www.catphones.com/en-gb/phones/b100)

I've been considering getting myself one, not because of a dirty work but I'd
like to have a phone that's usable with gloves on. And a battery life that is
measured in _weeks_ , not hours.

~~~
creshal
$100? Oof. It used to be that you could get $20 Nokias like that.

~~~
exDM69
Yeah, it's a bit pricey but certainly a more rugged phone than a $20
dumbphone. I guess the question is: "will it last five times longer or be
significantly better?" I haven't tried it.

They have a few models that are quite a lot cheaper than this, but with less
battery life and other specs.

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Paul_S
Is it easily rootable? I wanted to buy the old cat phone but that stopped me.

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robmcm
What is the switch on the front for? 2M/5M?

~~~
martiuk
The switch covers up ports, microphone(s) and speaker(s) and allows it to be
waterproof up to 5 metres compared to 2 metres when the switch is set to 2M.

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IshKebab
Misleading renders given the sensor is a Lepton. It has a resolution of 80x60
pixels.

~~~
privong
> Misleading renders given the sensor is a Lepton. It has a resolution of
> 80x60 pixels.

The render might be demonstrating the hybrid mode?

 _" since [the 13 megapixel rear camera] sits right next to the smartphone’s
thermal imaging Lepton sensor, the two can work together to create an enhanced
hybrid image by merging live feeds from both cameras together. That was one of
the most important innovations that FLIR introduced on the FLIR ONE, and it
allowed those who weren’t familiar with thermal imaging to be able to easily
decipher what they were looking at."_

I'm not sure how the hybrid imaging works, though.

~~~
JorgeGT
> I'm not sure how the hybrid imaging works, though.

They enlarge the very small thermal image and interpolate it, then they
superimpose/merge that interpolated thermal image with the higher-res visible-
spectrum image. I've worked with an older FLIR camera that did something like
this (without explicitly telling) and took me a time to understand what was
happening.

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huhtenberg
Woah, it's an inch thick!

~~~
privong
> Woah, it's an inch thick!

It's thick, but not quite that thick: "The new CAT S60 measures in at just
slightly thicker than half an inch"

~~~
huhtenberg
That's not a Woah then. But they must've edited the article. It actually said
"slightly thicker than an inch" when I was reading it earlier.

