Thermal image camera attachment for phone

[Greatsouthernland]

Thermal Imaging on your phone for $250 !!! What the... I want one (to put on my octacopter feral spotter ;) )

Anyone have one? Any good? :confused:


Seek Thermal Imaging USB Musb Camera for Android Galaxy 3 4 5 Note 2 3 4 UW AAA | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Seek-Thermal-Imaging-USB-mUSB-Camera-for-Android-Galaxy-3-4-5-NOTE-2-3-4-UW-AAA-/231668449815?hash=item35f0840217)

[dullbird]

I have been enquiring about these myself for my horses and animal rescues in walls

Let me know if you get one and how effective they are

The one I have been looking at is made by a different company and attaches to the iPhone. But the company produces high quality imaging camera for emergency services

[Greatsouthernland]

I have been enquiring about these myself for my horses and animal rescues in walls

Let me know if you get one and how effective they are

The one I have been looking at is made by a different company and attaches to the iPhone. But the company produces high quality imaging camera for emergency services

Will do. My research to date is focused on Android, I'm one of the non-apple crowd. Compared to the FLIR standalone units starting at $1,000 onward to $10,000, this would suit my application. Small dog sized animals out to 150m detected, but not identifiable. Unsure of the well depths you encounter, but movement of a warm object at 100m should be possible.

https://youtu.be/n_pEvSnVElU

[dullbird]

No the flir plug in unit I have been looking at for the iPhone is 350/400 they have just released one for android too I believe

Look at Flir one

[Bushie]

The FLIR gear is very good, was having a play with the new FLIR thermal imaging camera at work a few weeks back. (but its in the $7k range)


Martyn

[Greatsouthernland]

... (but its in the $7k range)


Martyn

Yeh, that's a few hundred more than I can justify for the use :D

[cafe latte]

I have been enquiring about these myself for my horses and animal rescues in walls

Let me know if you get one and how effective they are

The one I have been looking at is made by a different company and attaches to the iPhone. But the company produces high quality imaging camera for emergency services

I dont think they will help you find stuff in walls. I am just becoming a member of the Fire Brigade and I have been going to the training for a few weeks now and I had a play with the seriously expensive thermal imaging camera they have. In an open area they are great, but even standing behind a thin plastic curtain the person becomes invisible, also if a person stands behind a stud wall there are also invisible as well which surprised me.
Chris

[austastar]

Hi,
For sensitive thermal photography you need super chilled receptors.
I suspect phone camera stuff is just taking advantage of the inherent IR sensitivity of the digital camera.
Cheers

[shanegtr]

I dont think they will help you find stuff in walls. I am just becoming a member of the Fire Brigade and I have been going to the training for a few weeks now and I had a play with the seriously expensive thermal imaging camera they have. In an open area they are great, but even standing behind a thin plastic curtain the person becomes invisible, also if a person stands behind a stud wall there are also invisible as well which surprised me.
Chris
The only way you will detect something behind the wall is if its actually heating up the wall. A heat source behind glass is also "invisible" to thermo cameras well. There is a specialty glass available that thermo cameras can see through, mostly limited to electrical sub station use as far as I'm aware and not commonly used as its expensive.

[superquag]

Am I from the wrong Time & Space, or is $US35 a little steep to send a match-box sized piece of metal to Australia ? Best price I've seen in $USD 25.00 - I can cope with the exchange rate... :(
- Another example of the 'Australia Tax' ?

Other vendors "May not ship to Australia"... :o

Why ?

- Maybe a good excuse to sign up to a shipping service, such as 'My US address'

[cafe latte]

Hi,
For sensitive thermal photography you need super chilled receptors.
I suspect phone camera stuff is just taking advantage of the inherent IR sensitivity of the digital camera.
Cheers

The camera the firies use costs 25 grand you just cant see through or into walls.
Chris

[dullbird]

I dont think they will help you find stuff in walls. I am just becoming a member of the Fire Brigade and I have been going to the training for a few weeks now and I had a play with the seriously expensive thermal imaging camera they have. In an open area they are great, but even standing behind a thin plastic curtain the person becomes invisible, also if a person stands behind a stud wall there are also invisible as well which surprised me.
Chris


That's strange Chris because I have found kittens in walls using a tic.

and if you go and look at the demo on flir site they claim you can see insects in the roof and behind walls.

I would imagine there has to be a big difference in temp in order to be able to spot stuff. A 36/37 degree kitten is probably easier to spot in a cool wall cavity then a person walking behind a plastic sheet where the body temp might only be a 10/15 degree difference with the ambient temperature.

That's the only explanation I can come up with all I know is despite what you say we call fire rescue out a lot and use them when we are struggling to locate. They don't work in every situation but we have used them and they have worked

[shanegtr]

That's strange Chris because I have found kittens in walls using a tic.

and if you go and look at the demo on flir site they claim you can see insects in the roof and behind walls.

I would imagine there has to be a big difference in temp in order to be able to spot stuff. A 36/37 degree kitten is probably easier to spot in a cool wall cavity then a person walking behind a plastic sheet where the body temp might only be a 10/15 degree difference with the ambient temperature.

That's the only explanation I can come up with all I know is despite what you say we call fire rescue out a lot and use them when we are struggling to locate. They don't work in every situation but we have used them and they have worked

Thermal imaging camaras work by picking up infrared radiation that is emitted or reflected by all objects. Thermal radiation can easily pass through most gases but passing through solids and liquids is either difficult or blocked. So the radiation can either be emitted, absorbed or reflected. Put a thermal camera in certain situations and you can get false temperature readings due to reflected heat (stand in front of a dull aluminum sheet and point the camera at it - you'll get a reflection of your own emitted body heat). Point a thermo camera at a liquid and you'll only see the surface temp, not the actual temp of the liquid (narrow the span down enough and you can see the convention currents in a cup of coffee)

End of the day the kitten or insects behind the wall would actually have to be close enough to it to affect the temp of the wall before you could pick up the increased temp. Good quality thermal cameras (most likely any dedicated thermal camera nowadays) would be able to pick up temp differences of less than 1 Deg, the trick is setting it up right So it helps when you know what your looking for

[cafe latte]

The only way I could see the camera working for the kitten as has just has been said is the body of the kitten has been pressed against the wall warming the wall up. Re the insect on the other side of the wall, well I am not saying it is not possible with any thermal imaging camera, but no way with the 25 grands worth I have used. If it cant see my friend behind a roller door, or behind a plastic curtain or behind a thin stud wall no way can it see a fly on the other side of the wall. These are very cool and amazing what they can do but quite surprising what they can do too.
Chris

[dullbird]

That's exactly right what written above

When we find things that are trapped it is because hey have been there for sometime so yes it picks up the heat

I'm not saying the cameras look through walls or anything.nand when I say through walls I'm being very general I'm talking single brick with plaster board type walls not double brick

And when I say we found them I'm not saying we swung a tic around and found a perfect outline of a kitten we found its heat patch of where it wa trapped and there for we located it.

Like I said hasn't worked in al scenarios but it has worked and you can't really argue with that fact :)

[cafe latte]

That's exactly right what written above

When we find things that are trapped it is because hey have been there for sometime so yes it picks up the heat

I'm not saying the cameras look through walls or anything.nand when I say through walls I'm being very general I'm talking single brick with plaster board type walls not double brick

And when I say we found them I'm not saying we swung a tic around and found a perfect outline of a kitten we found its heat patch of where it wa trapped and there for we located it.

Like I said hasn't worked in al scenarios but it has worked and you can't really argue with that fact :)

Yes I meant plaster board too. The kitten there for some time and warming up the wall is very interesting, I will mention it in training next week. It would be interesting to get someone to lean against the wall for a bit while we do the slides (yawn!!!) and then later see if we can see him with the tic from the other side in the fun bit of the weeks training :). It might not work though as the wall will be double layer with a cavity unlike with the kitten which will directly tough the wall. If it does work it will be useful to remember as you would be able to see a person slumped behind a door in a house search.
Chris

[shanegtr]

The only way I could see the camera working for the kitten as has just has been said is the body of the kitten has been pressed against the wall warming the wall up. Re the insect on the other side of the wall, well I am not saying it is not possible with any thermal imaging camera, but no way with the 25 grands worth I have used. If it cant see my friend behind a roller door, or behind a plastic curtain or behind a thin stud wall no way can it see a fly on the other side of the wall. These are very cool and amazing what they can do but quite surprising what they can do too.
Chris
A bee hive you could most likely pick up as the hive itself is hot. Don't ask me how hot - I have no idea what temp they run but I did have a bee hive removed from my kids cubby last year and the bloke picked up where the hive was with his hand feeling the heat on the wall - so a thermal camera would defiantly pick this up


Oh and by the way if your using a camera that's currently worth around 25K then you've got some decent equipment. The price has come down drastically on these in recent years. When I first started using them for work the one I used was around 70K when new and at the time a high end Flir camera was around the 50K mark and it was miles ahead of ours in terms of image quality. This is only around 4 years ago too.

[dullbird]

Yes I meant plaster board too. The kitten there for some time and warming up the wall is very interesting, I will mention it in training next week. It would be interesting to get someone to lean against the wall for a bit while we do the slides (yawn!!!) and then later see if we can see him with the tic from the other side in the fun bit of the weeks training :). It might not work though as the wall will be double layer with a cavity unlike with the kitten which will directly tough the wall. If it does work it will be useful to remember as you would be able to see a person slumped behind a door in a house search.
Chris


Yeah I don't know whether you would get the same with a person slumped behind the door because it's not like a cavity where the heat is more concentrated.

If you were in a room you still have a whole lot of area with ambient temperature around.

I don't know whether you would get feed back through brick. For us we sighted the heat spot from the inside (plasterboard side)

Once everyone started touching the wall it was difficult too because you leave residue heat on the surface and the tic started picking that up too.

Pretty awesome bit of kit.

I had a rescue the other day and we used a Tic funnily enough that was brick and plasterboard but we never picked up on this kitten at all however this one was tiny and had been stuck for less than 24hrs so I don't know if that was some factors

[cafe latte]

Yeah I don't know whether you would get the same with a person slumped behind the door because it's not like a cavity where the heat is more concentrated.

If you were in a room you still have a whole lot of area with ambient temperature around.

I don't know whether you would get feed back through brick. For us we sighted the heat spot from the inside (plasterboard side)

Once everyone started touching the wall it was difficult too because you leave residue heat on the surface and the tic started picking that up too.

Pretty awesome bit of kit.

I had a rescue the other day and we used a Tic funnily enough that was brick and plasterboard but we never picked up on this kitten at all however this one was tiny and had been stuck for less than 24hrs so I don't know if that was some factors

I will see if the guys are up for a play, if so I will let you know how we go :)
Chris

[Greatsouthernland]

Some good insight Shane Cafe and Dullbird :BigThumb:

I thought I read WELLS not walls, I swear my vision is going or I'm developing aixelsyD .... :D

So thinking WELLS not walls, I pictured those occasions where animals fall into wells, and thought the camera would see down them successfully.

My bad...:)

[Greatsouthernland]

A bee hive you could most likely pick up as the hive itself is hot. Don't ask me how hot - I have no idea what temp they run but I did have a bee hive removed from my kids cubby last year and the bloke picked up where the hive was with his hand feeling the heat on the wall - so a thermal camera would defiantly pick this up
.

re the bee hives, TICameras are already used to detect the health of hives. Apparently brood temperature indicates the health of the queen/hive, and used over time to monitor the hive, can tell the apiarist when the hive will send out a swarm. Beekeeper I know was at an industry session on this subject recently.

On the 'seeing through walls discussion', anyone as old as I, would remember Airwolf - I see Hollywood has lied to me again, looks like my dream of owning a Supersonic helicopter that's Silent, can do Loops, is Bullet proof, beats Migs and can See (and hear) through walls/windows while silently hovering outside hotel rooms at night...this dream is shattered.

https://youtu.be/92qBDxTOoGk