Seek Thermal - Android Infrared Camera Review
by Ganesh T S on May 1, 2015 8:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Gadgets
- Thermal Imaging
- Seek Thermal
Miscellaneous Aspects and Concluding Remarks
The Seek Thermal camera connects to the microUSB port of a smart device, and hence, the measurement of the power consumption of the camera is quite challenging. We decided to monitor the battery voltage and current over Wi-Fi while the Seek Thermal camera was connected to the Dell Venue 8 7000. Obviously, the monitoring aspect contributes to power consumption since the Wi-Fi is kept in use all through. In the table below, we show the power consumption of the tablet for various scenarios.
| Seek Thermal Camera Power Consumption Estimation (Dell Venue 8 7000 with Wi-Fi Traffic On) |
|
| Scenario | Power Consumption (W) |
| Screen Off | 0.3416 |
| Screen On | 0.8282 |
| Seek Thermal Camera Preview | 3.3221 |
| Seek Thermal Camera Video Recording | 3.9920 |
Note that these power numbers are for the system as a whole and not the Seek Thermal camera alone
Related Plays
Seek Thermal was the first to come out with a sub-$200 thermal imaging solution. The price of the camera is now $249. They have also followed it up with the Seek Thermal XR - Xtra Range. It has the same resolution, but only a 20 degree field of view. However, it has an adjustable focus ring to be able to detect temperatures of objects up to 1800 ft. away. The XR model is priced at $299.
At CES 2015, FLIR was showing off its plans for a FLIR ONE that would be compatible with all iOS devices as well as a majority of Android devices. It is expected to land sometime towards the end of summer for a reasonable price point. For reference, the current FLIR ONE for iPhone 5/5s sells for $249. There is also a Kickstarter campaign for an affordable thermal imager from HemaVision, though the sensor resolution seems to be really low. All in all, thermal imagers are becoming more and more affordable, and given the multitude of useful applications, it is good news for consumers.
Scope for Improvement
The Seek Thermal camera is the ideal device for consumers to get started with a thermal imager without breaking the bank. It is more of a useful toy - given the applications that the company suggests that it be used for. We are not very convinced about the accuracy of the temperature readings, but it is good enough for the target market. Improvement aspects include higher resolution and frame rates for the microbolometer and a flexible microUSB connector for compatibility with a wider variety of devices. Finally, readers interested in a deeper technical dive into the camera would do well to peruse the EEVBlog thread here.
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willis936 - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
Neat.paul878 - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
Could you please post some better pictures taken by the camera, such as people, house, animals.Phiro69 - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
Holy smokes, yes. Nothing says "this would be useful" than screenshot after screenshot of nearly uniform orange backgrounds.I would love to know if this would be capable of thermally scanning your dwelling for temperature leaks, for instance.
icrf - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
This is the wall around my fireplace. You can see the two porthole windows and the stone hearth as being cooler than average, but the rest looks okay. There's a little more loss in the corner on the right going up the cathedral ceiling, too, but not much I can do about that.https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-AjXbZjNBMJI/VMF...
Everything is a bit fuzzy (hey, it's a cheap low-res camera), and I'm not sure about the minimum temperature difference it can detect, or if slight variations just get lost in the noise. If you want to find an insulation problem, it would probably have to be a bad one to be obvious.
icrf - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
Here's what that wall looks like (the split screen photo option in the app saves two separate photos if viewed outside the app, but the FOV and exact location is different): https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ezEjypVpl0Q/VMF...Gunbuster - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
But then you could see how terribad the resolution is...icrf - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
The FLIR was interesting in that it would combine the visible photo with the thermal photo and use the higher resolution visible image to enhance detail and overlay some thermal information. I think the sensor in that camera was actually lower than this one, so you actually get less thermal data (assuming similar quality sensors), but it's processed into something much prettier.Honestly, getting any thermal camera south of a $1,000 seems like a good start.
soccerballtux - Saturday, May 2, 2015 - link
thermal photos could actually be just as high resolution as your cellphone's normal photos but an IR filter is intentionally placed over the CCD to remove the IR, and with Camera addons like this one, an aftermarket blur is intentionally added to the image to reduce resolutionhammer256 - Saturday, May 2, 2015 - link
CCDs can capture near IR, but not the far IR for good thermal imaging.Daniel Egger - Saturday, May 2, 2015 - link
Please read the article before posting this nonsense. It actually explains the difference in hardware between real thermal imaging and fake IR imaging which can be achieved by removing the IR filter from the sensor of a regular camera.