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Night vision and thermal imaging phone apps ....
[Video in link]
You already know they got them X-ray joints on tap ...
http://online.wsj.com/articles/smar...ging-1408396425?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_business
Smartphone Add-Ons Offer Thermal Imaging
New Manufacturing Techniques Move Once Costly, Military-Style Night Vision Into Consumer Mainstream
By
DON CLARK
CONNECT
Aug. 18, 2014 5:13 p.m. ET
As thermal cameras become cheap enough to arrive in people's pockets, industry executives predict the tools will be adopted by more professionals like plumbers and electricians. Flir Systems Inc.
Smartphones are getting a new way of seeing.
Thermal imaging, a long-costly technology that lets soldiers see in the dark and firefighters see through smoke, is rapidly moving toward the mainstream with phone add-ons that cost hundreds of dollars rather than thousands.
Flir Systems Inc., FLIR +0.50% one of the best-known manufacturers in the field, in July introduced a $349 iPhone accessory that allows the smartphone's display to show glowing heat signatures of people, animals, lights and other objects. Its Flir One looks a bit like a standard protective case for a smartphone. The camera-equipped black sleeve wraps around an iPhone 5 or 5s, allowing a user to point at objects while viewing images on its display.
Meanwhile, a group of industry veterans at a startup called Seek Thermal this fall plan to begin selling an add-on camera for smartphones for about $100 less. Rather than a sleeve, the company plans to sell a small thermal-camera module that plugs into the bottom of a smartphone. In a recent demonstration, a prototype Seek Thermal camera generated color thermal images that can be contrasted with conventional images using a split-screen feature.
The Flir One case turns an iPhone into a thermal imaging camera. WSJ's Nathan Olivarez-Giles shows you what you can do with "Predator"-like heat vision.
The company, which has said little about its plans previously, is collaborating withRaytheon Co. RTN -0.17% and chip maker Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
The new products reflect a series of improvements in sensors and manufacturing techniques that could ultimately make thermal imaging a built-in feature of many consumer products.
"They are really a very significant advance," said Gabor Fulop, president of Maxtech International, a research firm that tracks the thermal-imaging market. "It's going to really propel the industry."
Such technology is already used for many commercial purposes, such as spotting heat loss in buildings, detecting leaking hot-water pipes and overheating electrical devices. Some high-end cars also use the technology to detect pedestrians or other hazards at night.
But as thermal cameras become cheap enough to arrive in people's pockets, industry executives predict the tools will be adopted by more professionals like plumbers and electricians as well as many consumers. They cite applications that include finding lost pets, playing hide-and-seek, observing wildlife, detecting water leaks, checking whether campfires are put out and spotting intruders.
"I'm here to tell you that we don't know what the real killer application is going to be," said Bill Parrish, Seek Thermal's co-founder and chief technology officer. Thermal imaging measures the intensity of infrared light given off as objects generate heat. It works differently from most "night-vision" goggles, whose green images are generated by amplifying small amounts of visible light. Thermal-imaging cameras require no light at all.
Such cameras began to be used for aerial reconnaissance after World War II. Many of them were developed in Santa Barbara, Calif., where Hughes Aircraft Co. established a research center in the 1950s that is now part of Raytheon. Flir has major operations in the Southern California city, which is also home to Seek Thermal.
The iPhone accessory from Flir Systems uses thermal imaging to show heat signatures on phone's display. Emily Prapuolenis/The Wall Street Journal
Early thermal cameras used liquid nitrogen to cool their detector circuitry to help sense faint differences in thermal signatures. That approach is still used in high-end devices for military and aerospace applications.
More recently, manufacturers have developed less-expensive imaging sensors that don't require special cooling. These microbolometers, as they are called, have an array of pixels that act like tiny thermometers and are packaged in a vacuum.
Flir, founded in 1978, offers nitrogen-cooled equipment from about $50,000 to $1 million, said Andy Teich, its chief executive. But it sells many "uncooled" products for commercial applications, with prices averaging a few thousand dollars, he said.
The Flir One indicates heat patterns using different colors, and can be viewed whether a room is dark or lit. An insulated wall might appear blue, while a person or the space above a door where energy is leaking glows orange.
The Flir One required a series of innovations, Mr. Teich said. Flir reduced manufacturing costs by fabricating many thermal sensors once on eight-inch silicon wafers, and combined many components used to process infrared images onto a single chip. The Flir One's thermal camera—a device called Lepton that the company is marketing to other hardware makers— is augmented by a standard camera and other technology to make images more distinct. "It brings a tremendous amount of detail," Mr. Teich said.
Such cameras can't see through walls, into houses, or through glass, since each surface radiates heat of its own. Depending on the material, however, heat behind or near a surface may show through.
"It's very hard to hide from a thermal imager," said Tim Fitzgibbons, who started Seek Thermal with Mr. Parrish. "You can't get behind a bush—you will show up."
Seek Thermal is changing its name from Tyrian Systems. Messrs. Parrish and Fitzgibbons previously led a company called Indigo Systems that Flir bought in 2003.
Mr. Fitzgibbons credits Raytheon for fabricating unusually small microbolometer pixels to achieve high resolution and reduce the sensor costs. Seek Thermal also claims a unique technique for avoiding a calibration process that typically adds four to six hours to the manufacturing process.
ging companies to exploit the kinds of advances that have reduced the price and increased the resolution on conventional digital cameras. He predicts the market for uncooled thermal devices—roughly flat between 2011 and 2013—will double to nearly $4 billion by 2019. "We are behind where digital cameras are, but we are catching up," said Stefan Bauer, general manager of Raytheon Vision Systems in Santa Barbara.
Raytheon plans to transfer results of its collaboration with Freescale into military and commercial products. Freescale, which will manufacture the sensor chips, may focus on automotive applications.
Fire departments—which use thermal imaging to find people in smoke as well as making sure flames are fully extinguished—are likely to benefit, said Ronald Jon Siarnicki, executive director of the National Fallen Firefighters Association.
At the costs of $6,000 to $10,000 for handheld thermal devices, he said, most fire departments can't afford many of them.
"This will allow every firefighter at some point to have it," he said.
Night vision and thermal imaging phone apps ....
[Video in link]You already know they got them X-ray joints on tap ...
http://online.wsj.com/articles/smar...ging-1408396425?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_business
Smartphone Add-Ons Offer Thermal Imaging
New Manufacturing Techniques Move Once Costly, Military-Style Night Vision Into Consumer Mainstream
By
DON CLARK
CONNECT
Aug. 18, 2014 5:13 p.m. ET
As thermal cameras become cheap enough to arrive in people's pockets, industry executives predict the tools will be adopted by more professionals like plumbers and electricians. Flir Systems Inc.
Smartphones are getting a new way of seeing.
Thermal imaging, a long-costly technology that lets soldiers see in the dark and firefighters see through smoke, is rapidly moving toward the mainstream with phone add-ons that cost hundreds of dollars rather than thousands.
Flir Systems Inc., FLIR +0.50% one of the best-known manufacturers in the field, in July introduced a $349 iPhone accessory that allows the smartphone's display to show glowing heat signatures of people, animals, lights and other objects. Its Flir One looks a bit like a standard protective case for a smartphone. The camera-equipped black sleeve wraps around an iPhone 5 or 5s, allowing a user to point at objects while viewing images on its display.
Meanwhile, a group of industry veterans at a startup called Seek Thermal this fall plan to begin selling an add-on camera for smartphones for about $100 less. Rather than a sleeve, the company plans to sell a small thermal-camera module that plugs into the bottom of a smartphone. In a recent demonstration, a prototype Seek Thermal camera generated color thermal images that can be contrasted with conventional images using a split-screen feature.
The Flir One case turns an iPhone into a thermal imaging camera. WSJ's Nathan Olivarez-Giles shows you what you can do with "Predator"-like heat vision.
The company, which has said little about its plans previously, is collaborating withRaytheon Co. RTN -0.17% and chip maker Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
The new products reflect a series of improvements in sensors and manufacturing techniques that could ultimately make thermal imaging a built-in feature of many consumer products.
"They are really a very significant advance," said Gabor Fulop, president of Maxtech International, a research firm that tracks the thermal-imaging market. "It's going to really propel the industry."
Such technology is already used for many commercial purposes, such as spotting heat loss in buildings, detecting leaking hot-water pipes and overheating electrical devices. Some high-end cars also use the technology to detect pedestrians or other hazards at night.
But as thermal cameras become cheap enough to arrive in people's pockets, industry executives predict the tools will be adopted by more professionals like plumbers and electricians as well as many consumers. They cite applications that include finding lost pets, playing hide-and-seek, observing wildlife, detecting water leaks, checking whether campfires are put out and spotting intruders.
"I'm here to tell you that we don't know what the real killer application is going to be," said Bill Parrish, Seek Thermal's co-founder and chief technology officer. Thermal imaging measures the intensity of infrared light given off as objects generate heat. It works differently from most "night-vision" goggles, whose green images are generated by amplifying small amounts of visible light. Thermal-imaging cameras require no light at all.
Such cameras began to be used for aerial reconnaissance after World War II. Many of them were developed in Santa Barbara, Calif., where Hughes Aircraft Co. established a research center in the 1950s that is now part of Raytheon. Flir has major operations in the Southern California city, which is also home to Seek Thermal.
The iPhone accessory from Flir Systems uses thermal imaging to show heat signatures on phone's display. Emily Prapuolenis/The Wall Street Journal
Early thermal cameras used liquid nitrogen to cool their detector circuitry to help sense faint differences in thermal signatures. That approach is still used in high-end devices for military and aerospace applications.
More recently, manufacturers have developed less-expensive imaging sensors that don't require special cooling. These microbolometers, as they are called, have an array of pixels that act like tiny thermometers and are packaged in a vacuum.
Flir, founded in 1978, offers nitrogen-cooled equipment from about $50,000 to $1 million, said Andy Teich, its chief executive. But it sells many "uncooled" products for commercial applications, with prices averaging a few thousand dollars, he said.
The Flir One indicates heat patterns using different colors, and can be viewed whether a room is dark or lit. An insulated wall might appear blue, while a person or the space above a door where energy is leaking glows orange.
The Flir One required a series of innovations, Mr. Teich said. Flir reduced manufacturing costs by fabricating many thermal sensors once on eight-inch silicon wafers, and combined many components used to process infrared images onto a single chip. The Flir One's thermal camera—a device called Lepton that the company is marketing to other hardware makers— is augmented by a standard camera and other technology to make images more distinct. "It brings a tremendous amount of detail," Mr. Teich said.
Such cameras can't see through walls, into houses, or through glass, since each surface radiates heat of its own. Depending on the material, however, heat behind or near a surface may show through.
"It's very hard to hide from a thermal imager," said Tim Fitzgibbons, who started Seek Thermal with Mr. Parrish. "You can't get behind a bush—you will show up."
Seek Thermal is changing its name from Tyrian Systems. Messrs. Parrish and Fitzgibbons previously led a company called Indigo Systems that Flir bought in 2003.
Mr. Fitzgibbons credits Raytheon for fabricating unusually small microbolometer pixels to achieve high resolution and reduce the sensor costs. Seek Thermal also claims a unique technique for avoiding a calibration process that typically adds four to six hours to the manufacturing process.
ging companies to exploit the kinds of advances that have reduced the price and increased the resolution on conventional digital cameras. He predicts the market for uncooled thermal devices—roughly flat between 2011 and 2013—will double to nearly $4 billion by 2019. "We are behind where digital cameras are, but we are catching up," said Stefan Bauer, general manager of Raytheon Vision Systems in Santa Barbara.
Raytheon plans to transfer results of its collaboration with Freescale into military and commercial products. Freescale, which will manufacture the sensor chips, may focus on automotive applications.
Fire departments—which use thermal imaging to find people in smoke as well as making sure flames are fully extinguished—are likely to benefit, said Ronald Jon Siarnicki, executive director of the National Fallen Firefighters Association.
At the costs of $6,000 to $10,000 for handheld thermal devices, he said, most fire departments can't afford many of them.
"This will allow every firefighter at some point to have it," he said.
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