Las Vegas: Remember the alien with heat vision in the movie Predator? You, too, can now stalk people in the jungle by their heat signatures - or check your home's insulation for leaks, whichever is most useful to you.
FLIR Systems is launching its first consumer product, an iPhone jacket that contains a heat camera. Temperature differences show up in different colours on the screen. For instance, you can set it to show hotter things in yellow, medium-hot in red and cold in purple.
The FLIR One will cost $349, which compares with $995 and up for FLIR's professional thermal imagers. The resolution of the thermal image is low, but the jacket also contains a regular, visible-spectrum camera and overlays the images for a more detailed picture. The phone can record video or stills of the heat images.
What you could use it for:
- Spot leaky insulation in the house.
- Detect moisture leaks in the house. Because it loses heat through evaporation, water looks cold.
- Beat your kids at hide-and-seek, Predator-style.
- Spot lurkers in the parking lot or wildlife at night.
- Crazy party shots in darkness.
- Unique selfies. "Look at me, I have a fever!"
Availability: The FLIR One will launch this spring for the iPhone 5 and 5S. It won't work with the 5C. An Android model will be available later this year.
The accuracy: The thermal camera can detect temperature differences of about one-tenth of a Fahrenheit degree, and the temperature readout is accurate to within 2 degrees.
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