CES 2014: FLIR Systems Debuts 'FLIR ONE' Thermal Camera Case for iPhone 5s and iPhone 5

Ive used handheld FLIR devices when they first hit the market for police work, I must say they are completely amazing.

There are TONS of uses for this, Ill be buying one for sure and using it for home energy applications.

I'm getting one for sure as well.

I piss away more money than this on more stupid things.... So even if I find some ways to improve insulation in my home and nothing else, it will be worth it.

t76turbo said:

I'm getting one for sure as well.

I piss away more money than this on more stupid things.... So even if I find some ways to improve insulation in my home and nothing else, it will be worth it.

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I have a digital infrared thermometer with a laser sight that I bought to read cooking oil temperatures, etc. that was more than good enough to address problem spots with wall insulation. I think I originally paid $30 for mine and today decent models are going for about $15-$20.

That said, it definitely lacks the cool factor of an infrared imaging system.

foobarbaz said:

Also, intruders can detect families in total darkness.

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In total darkness except for the glowing face lit up by the iPhone display they're seeing in the dark with...

Am I the only one who does not buy the X-RAY thing? It's clearly a misleading ad.

Elijen said:

Am I the only one who does not buy the X-RAY thing? It's clearly a misleading ad.

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I thought the same thing...."wow, this camera can take x-ray like pics of bones??" but then realized they are just showing all of the different spectra of light with only one of them being "infra-red" with that one showing a much less impressive picture of anything!

Of course the problem with making this a device specific size is that it won't work with the much rumored phablet-sized iPhone 6.

That's generally not a problem with a case or even a battery pack, but at $349.99, that puts it above the level of a throwaway/impulse buy (at least for me).

Ok, i'm going to ask ....can you see underneath clothing with this?

musio said:

Ok, i'm going to ask ....can you see underneath clothing with this?

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Nope. IR doesn't travel through walls, windows or clothing (unless you wear a plastic bag). The only time you might see someone through a wall is if they were hot enough to heat the wall up

Got a few IR cameras at work and they cost around $100k but can capture at HD at around 500Hz. Even a standard 50Hz high res camera will set you back $50-60k

arekm said:

There is one major problem with this device. FLIR ommited the most important thing in every promo material and specification for this device - resolution.

That suggests that the resolution is very, very bad and the thing is just a gadget :-(

Better look at regular Flir E4 (80x60) camera that can be easily hacked to E8 resolution (320x240).

The IPhone accessory is most likely worse than Flir E4.

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I'm not convinced that's a major problem. Possibly the frame rate will be bad too but that shouldn't get in the way of its utility. Except maybe for those interested in seeing through clothes.

My guess is that a few hours of using this (and a caulk gun) to go around your house and identify air leaks would pay for itself in energy savings many times over.

In fact, I bet I could get 5 or 10 of my neighbors to split the price and then eBay the thing and do it all for $25 a person.

I bought a similar one off kickstarter http://www.muoptics.com however it has yet to arrive. It also is larger and will work with other devices not just iOS

arekm said:

There is one major problem with this device. FLIR ommited the most important thing in every promo material and specification for this device - resolution.

That suggests that the resolution is very, very bad and the thing is just a gadget :-(

Better look at regular Flir E4 (80x60) camera that can be easily hacked to E8 resolution (320x240).

The IPhone accessory is most likely worse than Flir E4.

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Yeah, if only they had a gallery online with photos and movies, right?

Cool product and concept integrating with iOS. I'm sure resolution will get better with time or pricing will eventually slip even further over the very affordable $350.

Can't wait for the reviews.

I think this is pretty cool. I will wait to see if a second generation comes out with a higher resolution.

On my way to CES now, will have to stop by the booth and check it out!!!!!

Elijen said:

Am I the only one who does not buy the X-RAY thing? It's clearly a misleading ad.

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Its not an ad. Its a diagram provided to journalists who might wish to explain the electromagnetic spectrum to their readers. You can find it on the FLIR press page alongside some other non-ads. That certain bloggers just used it willy-nilly isn't really FLIR's fault.

For all those CSI fans.

mw360 said:

I'm not convinced that's a major problem. Possibly the frame rate will be bad too but that shouldn't get in the way of its utility. Except maybe for those interested in seeing through clothes.

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Actually, if you look at the gallery they have up of actual shots, the framerate of the videos isn't at all bad--maybe 5 fps?--as is the resolution. Looks like somewhere in the ballpark of 150x100, which is not at all bad given how tiny it is and the reasonable price. Certainly good enough for consumer uses like finding leaks, insulation problems, studs, animals, etc.

It also looks like they're using the iPhone's built-in camera with some sort of edge-detection filter to add an overlay when there's visible light to give added virtual resolution and a better idea of what you're looking at (so you can see markings on the wall or objects that don't have a temperature gradient), which is pretty cool. I actually wish the older (and wildly more expensive) pro camera we had at work did that. Maybe their newer ones do, not sure.

I'm seriously considering getting one of these, that's for sure--it's practically worth $350 just for the awesome factor, and being able to find leaks and insulation issues would make it justifiably useful.

arekm said:

There is one major problem with this device. FLIR ommited the most important thing in every promo material and specification for this device - resolution.

That suggests that the resolution is very, very bad and the thing is just a gadget :-(

Better look at regular Flir E4 (80x60) camera that can be easily hacked to E8 resolution (320x240).

The IPhone accessory is most likely worse than Flir E4.

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Here is what FLIR says in a YT comment...

The simple answer is that the thermal sensor is 80x60 pixels & the visible camera is VGA, but the MSX blending in our FLIR ONE blends the visible camera & the thermal images - making the resolution appear much higher. When capturing still images we employ image enhancement that produces a 160x120 thermal image. The result? When asked, #CES2014 attendees have guessed the image is as high as 640x480.

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Straight from the horse's mouth.

Resolution 80x60

Resolution for the FLIR ONE is 80 x 60, the visible light camera has a resolution of 640 x 480. The high resolution image of the ads are results of arithmetic phantasy.

Nice. Hopefully the next version would be better and with a lower price.
I also will wait until after the iPhone 6 comes out.

McGiord said:

Nice. Hopefully the next version would be better and with a lower price.
I also will wait until after the iPhone 6 comes out.

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Thats my only concern. The new phone comes out and is a different size and now you have a $349 case sitting in a drawer. It would be nice if they somehow made it modular so the flir components could be moved to another case.

The other problem with this device is its limited to iPhone 5 and 5S. The 5S has already been out for a few months. So to spend this kind of money on a device that will be obsolete basically in 2 years is nuts. It's like the olliclip camera lens. They need to make universal kits or swap out the hardware into another case so you only have to spend a few dollars vs couple hundred each time.

I don't want to be held back from upgrading to the next gen phone because of some 'attachment'.