thermal sensitivity vs thermal accuracy

[Rye_Zers]

@jkaylor

1mp IR camera detectors (you can only buy the cores currently) are in the $80k range. Keep in mind that is just the core. Its video currently supports 720P. I would say at least another two years when 320x240 will become the norm with 640x480 coming down to the 320x240 prices within two years.

Where did you get the information that in 2 years 640x480 will get down to price of a 320x240 and the latter will be the norm?

I’m thinking now whether to transfer payment for a FLIR i7 with only 120x120 resolution. I plan to use it to see if aircondionining room is well insulated. Is this effective? Also mold water damage. At night. I always walk in the garden outside my house. I want the i7 to double as spotter of dangerous rats and snakes in the bushes. But snakes are said to be cold blooded. What is the temperature of a snake body with respect to the surrounding? Is it same temperature? Hope someone here can try to use their thermal camera to aim at snakes in the zoo. Pls. check the temperature as it would finally make me decide whether to get an i7 or wait for the 640x480 when it gets to the price of an e60 in 2 years. Thanks.

There are a lot of other integration’s that will be coming out before we see the 1mp cameras coming down in to the $20k range (where 620x480 is now). The biggest of which will be on board video storage and imagers that function more like a video camera that can take images rather than a camera that has a video out. I also wouldn’t be shocked to see on board Android integration (not just WiFi, the entire OS) or maybe some sort of proprietary tablet style camera.

The manufacturer that will take a quantum leap ahead of the others is the one that solves the problem that 90% of IR is reporting. There are ways to shorten that up with technology…some sort of auto tuning would rock, laser distance meter instead of laser pointer to calculate FOV automatically (among other things), auto emissivity (don’t ask how that would work) and further integration with other technologies for building science and PDM.

Another cool one would be to integrate the IR line scanner technology in to modern imagers for 3d imaging of moving parts. If anyone were to do something like this it would be Fluke since their parent company owns a company that makes IR line scanners, plus they have a huge industrial customer base already. Although who knows, it isn’t like FLIR doesn’t have the ability in the technology either.

JJ