FLIR camera for i phone

[thataway]

FLIR has come out with a camera which attaches to the i phone case, and makes the iPhone into a infra red camera. The cost is "less than $350", and details can be found at:http://www.flir.com/flirone/explore/tech-specs.html

The image is more like a home inspectors (Or what a marine surveyor should be using), than the detailed camera which we see with the hand held FLIR units (cost $2,000 up) and the cameras on the boat, which start in the $3500 range. These cameras will not work thru window glass in the C Dory, but they may bring thermal images at a much more affordable price to all of us. The product will be available in early 2014.




First Image is from MacRumors.
Second image is from Tech Crunch.

Yes, there is going to be an android case, but I suspect with different size cases there will be some limits there. Also a developers kit will be available.

 

[rogerbum]

I also took a look around to find info on this camera. The IR camera is only 60x80 pixels and it overlays that on top of a visible light image that is 640x 480. So for night time imaging, it's not likely to be so useful. To find hot spots or sources of heat loss in a home, it should be very useful and the price is right.

 

[thataway]

The resolution is the same as the $995 FLIR E4. The cheapest ($1850) First mate hand held marine unit has a resolution of 180 x 240 in black and white. With this I can easily spot an animal the size of a raccoon at about 300 feet. (I have not tried any further)

It will be interesting to see how this cheaper unit performs in finding boats on the water or debris in the water. The high resolution may or may not be important--depending on the low light performance of the I phone camera. The use of the low resolution overlay from the i phone's camera helps to give some definition to the object. It probably will be useful finding temperature differences at close ranges--less so at longer ranges.

The low resolution First Mate claims spotting a man at 1050 feet and a small vessel at 2940 feet. The next resolution up (240 x 320) claims spotting a man at 1480 feet and a small vessel at 4100 feet. Scaling this down (and I don't know if this is at all accurate), it is possible that a man may be spotted at 500 feet. There were many dark nights when I sailed into the Isthmus at Catalina, when I would have loved to see boats at 250 feet and buoys at 100 feet--sure you can use a search light--but that destroys any night vision. (Long before GPS, Radar, etc)--but there are still situations where you want to distinguish objects at a few hundred feet.

The other use is in marine survey-just as in home surveys. The FLIR method of finding water in the hulls/delamination is one of the best methods--which is rarely used because of the prior cost of a FLIR camera. The cost of this FLIR camera is far less that what we could sell an ultrasonic device which would show delamination and would give the same information as a far more expensive camera--since we are looking at temperature differences in color.

Also FLIR (who now owns RayMarine) has competition, which are listed at about half the price of the FLIR cameras--so we will probably see prices come down for the FLIR units.

Marie says I get one for my birthday--and then we will examine some boats to see how well this works in comparison to the First Mate units (which do not use color to differentiate temperatures.

 

[rogerbum]

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Marie says I get one for my birthday--and then we will examine some boats to see how well this works in comparison to the First Mate units (which do not use color to differentiate temperatures.

GREAT! Report back when you've used it for awhile. (that's kind of like a beta test for the rest of us).

 

[hardee]

Aside from not having an I-Phone, this looks pretty cool. Price for this device and a new I-phone will be close to the FLIR, but with multiple uses. I just checked out the new handheld FLIR and it is cool. New toys sure hope Christmas comes soon. :lol:

Harvey
SleepyC :moon