A side note to this: Sometimes, users expect a particular color mapping and will object to using a coloring scheme that is perceptually better. E.g. doctors often view diffusion tensor images where each point in the image represents a 3-dimensional value, using the RGB colors for each dimension. This is a perceptually horrific choice, since practical demonstrations would reveal that there is significant perceptual ambiguity when viewing data represented like this. But an engineer once made a prototype that used this mapping, and now the operators are unwilling to change their habits.
Here is one camera that can switch views: http://nightvisionplanet.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/i...
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/a-review-of-the-iphone-infrared...
There are, apparently, also third-party apps available.
I used "contrast" to quickly identify hot / cold parts of my house, then "spot meter" to measure the actual temp. Found out part of my attic is not insulated. That's money going out through the roof.
Here's a shot of my laptop: http://bochs.info/img/IMG_0676-20140822-211311.png
If anyone's curious about something specific, I'll gladly take requests for photos. It's super interesting to see things from a temperature perspective.
[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1075169276/hemaimager-a...
For instance, the E4 they sell is $1000 and up.
In my opinion, it wouldn't be that hard to adapt to a wider iPhone. It's two pieces: a case with a hole in the back for mounting, and the camera brick - which only touches the back and bottom of the phone.
I still have my iPhone 4 but it is gathering dust and the batteries are dead so I don't want to waste $350 on something similar.
You can buy a pro-sumer device for that money:
I think due to the resolution many of the interesting things you can do with it will end up being at short range.
I also noticed it reports the sun's temperature as "> 212º F" so there's that.
They had one on site and the reason I asked the range was because I held it up and looked and it seemed very very local. I'd be happy to see this thing produce a heat signature that you can identify as human at 100 yards, that isn't the same as a human's heat signature at 100 yards though.
In case anyone has an old halogen torchiere lamp sitting around and would be interested in such a conversion, here are some photos of mine to give some ideas: http://imgur.com/a/XbtNc#0
The first photo shows the mount I constructed to hold the bulbs. The parts are four 2.5" corner braces, four 4" mending plates, four Leviton 3352-F lamp holders, and several machine screws, nuts, and lock washers. (There are no lock washers in that photo, because that was a test to check fit, not the final assembly). All the parts for the mount, except the lamp holders, are at the big stores like Home Depot or Lowes for a total of under $10. The lamp holders were at Do it Best Hardware for around $10 for four of them. [1]
I did not have to drill any holes to make this work. Everything is using the holes that are built into the corner braces and mending plates. In particular, the distance between the diagonal holes on the bottom turns out to differ by only about 1 mm from the distance between the holes on the lamp bowl that were used to attach the original halogen socket. That's enough overlap for a #6 machine screw to easily go through and securely attach the thing.
The second photo shows the 4 switches I added to the lamp bowl to control the lights. There are two "on-off" switches, and two "on-off-on" switches. Each lamp holder is controlled by one of the switches. The two on the "on-off" switches can simply be turned on and off with their switch. The two on the "on-off-on" switches are wired so one way turns them directly on, and the other way connects them to the dimmer that is in the lamp pole. Yes, I am aware that I am morally obligated to paint this to look like the underside of a cow.
My original plan was to have two 1600 lumen 2700k bulbs, and two 1600 lumen 5000k bulbs. This would give me a lot of flexibility. If I wanted 2700k light, I could switch one bulb to the dimmer to get from low to 1600, and I could turn the other bulb on to go from 1600 to 3200. Same if I want 5000k light. And if I want even more light, I could do both of these at the same time. [2]
The third photo shows it with everything wired up. It is not pretty, as I pretty much just went point to point, but did not do a very good job of picking segment lengths. And yes, I realize I should insulate the backs of the switches. I'll be using electrical tape to cover those exposed terminals. They are not covered yet because I'm still in the testing phase. I also might rewire it to make the wiring cleaner. (I'm also considering putting the switches in a plastic box)
The gray and orange 3 way connectors are Wago Lever-Nut connectors. They are awesome. They can take any mix of 12-28 gauge wire, they connect by simply lifting the lever, inserting the wire, and then lowering the lever. They disconnect by reversing that, and the wire comes back out completely undamaged, and the connector is completely reusable. Rated for 600 volts, 20 amps. I used these for the connections that connect the stuff in the bowl to the wires coming out of the pole so that the bowl can fairly easily be removed from the pole. Their only downside is that they are more expensive than other connectors, like wire nuts. A box of 50 from Amazon worked out to $0.40 per connector.
The yellow connectors are In-Sure push in connectors. It is possible to remove them, but they are not re-usable, so are really meant for permanent connections. A jar of 200 from Amazon was $0.13 per connector [3].
Not shown is the shade. This design places the bulbs above the rim of the bowl, and this leads to harsh shadows in the room. Right now, I have a simple shade I made by taking some white construction paper and making a cylinder of just under the diameter of the bowl. This sits on top and diffuses the light, although it also absorbs quit a bit. I think I want something that only blocks the front quarter. Currently trying to decide mechanically how to make that work...looking at making some kind of frame out of wire to hold the paper (or some more translucent material) in place. I'm also trying to figure out if I can make some kind of adjustable shade that would let me vary the amount of light blocked, which could serve as an alternative to electronic dimming.
[1] The most surprising thing I learned during this project was that buying these parts from my local big chain hardware stores in person was about 1/2 the price I could get them from Amazon.
[2] Another approach I've toyed with is three 1600 lumen bulbs and one 800 lumen bulb. For very low to 800 lumen, I'd use the 800 lumen bulb on the dimmer. For 800 to 1600, I'd use one of the 1600 lumen bulbs on the dimmer. Add in the other two 1600s to bring the range up to 5500. I've also considered getting rid of the dimmer, and going with 450 lumen, 800 lumen, 1600 lumen, 1600 lumen.
LED bulbs do not dim all the way to zero. Their range is something like 20-100% (my estimate from eyeballing it). That's why I did not go with the simplest conversion, which would be four 1600 lumen bulbs all on the dimmer and no separate switches. The dimmest non-zero output would then be something like the equivalent of a 75 watt incandescent.
[3] I should have checked Home Depot. They stock them locally, in 100 packs, for $0.07 per connector.
> At about 100m, you can see the heat signature of a person. However, atmospheric conditions can influence the visible range. Dry, clear weather will provide a greater range than rainy, foggy or humid conditions as water in the atmosphere can absorb infrared radiation before reaching the sensor.
> The spot temperature is a close representation reading for conditions testing and monitoring. It may vary 2 degrees from actual temperature.
The sensor is capable of good resolution, accuracy, and repeatability, but it doesn't always tell you what you assume it's telling you. People who use these things professionally usually need to take courses on how to interpret the results.
The E4 can be modified for 320x240 support (at least the older ones could, don't know if they've "fixed" this or not), but it sounds like Opgal's sensor is even better in that respect.
That might be a dirt cheap way to get a passable IR cam.
The cheapest FLIR camera so far has a (afaik) 240x240 low resolution IR sensor. So they maybe combine an upscaled IR image over an actual VGA camera photo.
And yes, launching this thing a few days before the iPhone 6 announcement is about the stupidest goddamn marketing move since the Osborne 1. Somebody needs to lose their job over that.
In FLIR's defense, 80x60 is still very useful for a lot of things. The ability to overlay low-resolution IR and moderate-resolution visual images is sort of a cheesy gimmick, but it makes the low-res IR sensors vastly more useful. (My E4 is hacked for 320x240 support, so I usually turn the MSX overlay off.)
- Color (you can pick how the color scale is rendered)
- Sensitivity (matte, semi-matte, semi-glossy, glossy)
They're releasing a few more apps of their own and an SDK, so it might be possible in the future to get the raw IR image.
If FLIR didn't go out of their way to cripple the 320x240 sensors in their low-end models, MSX wouldn't be worth incorporating at all.
