Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging

Re:Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging by verytrivial on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @05:00AM (#11157783)

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.)

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Re:Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging by ascorbic on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @06:18AM (#11158071)

I have one of the Flir dongles (bought for work: I work with high-power LEDs) and I've gotten quite obsessive about looking for draughts and insulation gaps. It gives you spot temperatures on the screen too, which is really useful. Seeing the icy-blue draught pouring through the broken cat flap seal and pooling on the floor was a wake-up call.

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Re:Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging by JulianMorrison on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @05:35AM (#11157932)

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

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Re:Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging by bryanrasmussen on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @07:51AM (#11158510)

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.

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Re:Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging by JulianMorrison on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @08:04AM (#11158560)

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

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Re:Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging by cpwright on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @08:38AM (#11158709)

I bought a FLIR one for the iPhone; and it found an uninsulated section of wall in my house. The actual reason I purchased it was to help locate an under-slab leak. $250 to not break the wrong bit of concrete would be well worth it.

For the CAT phone, I think the bigger selling point is the ruggedness.

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Re:Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging by toomuchtodo on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @10:19AM (#11159429)

Would you have an Amazon link for the FLIR adapter you purchased for your iPhone?

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Re:Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging by JorgeGT on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @10:36AM (#11159570)

It is called FLIR ONE: http://www.amazon.com/FLIR-ONE-Thermal-Imager-iOS/dp/B00VILV...

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Re:Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging by atonse on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @10:28AM (#11159506)

"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."

I just bought one of these last week to do exactly that http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0044R87BE

It is definitely not as cool as a FLIR device but at 1/10 the price, totally worth it.

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Re:Caterpillar's new smartphone with built-in thermal imaging by mtgx on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @07:28AM (#11158378)

There have been others for a while:

http://www.amazon.com/Seek-Compact-Thermal-Imager-Android/dp...

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