Hi everyone!
I've had some time to play around with the Prototype of the BT Thermal Imaging Addon for Android phones.
The Hardware and Software was designed by XDA Member "Mardaso", you can read about the begiinigs of the project in this thread.
Mardaso kindly sent me a prototype and allowed me access to the latest beta app for testing purposes.
I will attempt to show you what this device can do.
First some facts:
The Far Infrared Sensor built into this device is a Melexis MLX90620 16x4 Pixel Thermopile Array. It is a low resolution and low cost sensor. Despite the low resolution it is actually quite useful, 64 FIR Pixels can show up leaks around Windows and doors, find cold and hot spots and let you find your dog in the dark, especially in winter when the warm-blooded creature shines like a beacon...
A Model with two Sensors, doubling the resolution and giving you and aspect ratio of 16:8, is possible and might be available in the future. a trial run with a dual-sensor setup was succesful.
The device is currently powered by 3 AAA batteries, but newer prototypes work with 2 AAA batteries, making the unit smaller and lighter. The current revision uses BT 2.1, but the final device will be dual-mode BT with 4.0 support for future proofing and iPhone compatibility.
The Android App is currently pretty basic, offering Camera Overlay, framerates from 1-8Hz, Automatic or manual Temperature scales, Ironbow or RGB Color display and Screenshot capability.
I tested this with my Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.2.2 and it works quite well, a few bugs are still there, but they should be mostly solved by
the time this hits Google Play
So, let's look at some pictures:
This is the current Prototype device, it's size and shape are far from final. The black thing next to it is the pouch for my Nexus. I attached the Sensor to my Nexus with a piece of Pugoo pad, this works really well.
This is my dog in TI vision. The resolution is no good enough for details. but still quite impressive for such a low-priced sensor.
This shows the real usefulness. You can clearly see how much warmth is radiated out through the old, double glazed wooden windows. The Yellow area does not quite match the windows area, this is due to the fact, that the sensor is not perfectly aligned with the Nexus camera. This should improve in newer revisions of the sensor and app.
This is a new and well insulated house, plastic windows with triple glazing. Windows, door and wall are mostly the same temperature.
Here you can see, that deven in a well insulated house there are warm and cold spots. This is the same door you saw above, but from the inside. To make the temperature differences visible I had to set the max and min temperatures by hand. Difference from warmest to coldest spot are minimal.
Last image for today: My dog at night with thermal overlay.
OK, this is just a start and a first impression. I'm planning to do more pictures, for example of the inside of my PC.
If you've got special wishes or questions, just ask and I'll try to answer.
Thanks for reading, I look forward to hearing your opinions and suggestions!
I've had some time to play around with the Prototype of the BT Thermal Imaging Addon for Android phones.
The Hardware and Software was designed by XDA Member "Mardaso", you can read about the begiinigs of the project in this thread.
Mardaso kindly sent me a prototype and allowed me access to the latest beta app for testing purposes.
I will attempt to show you what this device can do.
First some facts:
The Far Infrared Sensor built into this device is a Melexis MLX90620 16x4 Pixel Thermopile Array. It is a low resolution and low cost sensor. Despite the low resolution it is actually quite useful, 64 FIR Pixels can show up leaks around Windows and doors, find cold and hot spots and let you find your dog in the dark, especially in winter when the warm-blooded creature shines like a beacon...
A Model with two Sensors, doubling the resolution and giving you and aspect ratio of 16:8, is possible and might be available in the future. a trial run with a dual-sensor setup was succesful.
The device is currently powered by 3 AAA batteries, but newer prototypes work with 2 AAA batteries, making the unit smaller and lighter. The current revision uses BT 2.1, but the final device will be dual-mode BT with 4.0 support for future proofing and iPhone compatibility.
The Android App is currently pretty basic, offering Camera Overlay, framerates from 1-8Hz, Automatic or manual Temperature scales, Ironbow or RGB Color display and Screenshot capability.
I tested this with my Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.2.2 and it works quite well, a few bugs are still there, but they should be mostly solved by
the time this hits Google Play
So, let's look at some pictures:
This is the current Prototype device, it's size and shape are far from final. The black thing next to it is the pouch for my Nexus. I attached the Sensor to my Nexus with a piece of Pugoo pad, this works really well.
This is my dog in TI vision. The resolution is no good enough for details. but still quite impressive for such a low-priced sensor.
This shows the real usefulness. You can clearly see how much warmth is radiated out through the old, double glazed wooden windows. The Yellow area does not quite match the windows area, this is due to the fact, that the sensor is not perfectly aligned with the Nexus camera. This should improve in newer revisions of the sensor and app.
This is a new and well insulated house, plastic windows with triple glazing. Windows, door and wall are mostly the same temperature.
Here you can see, that deven in a well insulated house there are warm and cold spots. This is the same door you saw above, but from the inside. To make the temperature differences visible I had to set the max and min temperatures by hand. Difference from warmest to coldest spot are minimal.
Last image for today: My dog at night with thermal overlay.
OK, this is just a start and a first impression. I'm planning to do more pictures, for example of the inside of my PC.
If you've got special wishes or questions, just ask and I'll try to answer.
Thanks for reading, I look forward to hearing your opinions and suggestions!
