Infrared camera coming to the Apple iPhone?
FLIR, or Forward-Looking Infrared, is used by military personnel to "see" in the dark without having to don those bulky night-vision goggles. At the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) expo in Washington D.C., a company aptly named FLIR showed off a protoype of a case-like contraption that brings a commercial infrared camera to the Apple iPhone. The product for the iPhone was made to promote FLIR's line of Quark camera cores.
Measuring 3/4 of an inch, the cores offer a resolution of 480 x 640 (.3MP). FLIR's CEO Andrew Teich noted that with the 9mm lens attached, a person can be spotted at 300 yards. Right now, the technology would come at a cost that would far too prohibitive for your average iPhone user. Teich said that to get down to the price that would make the product more acceptable to consumers, the resolution and the heat sensitivity would have to be adjusted downward. He says that right now, the cost of the product is ten times the few hundred dollars that could attract smartphone buyers. It sounds like this is something that might be on the back burner as far as the public is concerned, until the technology allows for a lower price point.
source: PopularMechanics via Gizmodo
source: PopularMechanics via Gizmodo
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