Thermal imaging for your phone is one of those ideas that you talk about with your buddies, saying how cool would it be if your phone’s camera can also provide thermal (infrared) imaging – and then you relegate it to wishful thinking. But that’s what Seek Thermal camera is – it is a real-life affordable thermal imaging solution for your Android device, and no, we’re not joshing you.
The Seek Thermal camera is a “for real” effort at an affordable thermal imaging accessory that you can easily connect to your Android. Most companies out there wouldn’t even try because of the cost – but it looks like the developers of the Seek Thermal camera have found a way to offset it. Of course, the issue with thermal imaging is usually the resolution it gives you.
Because of the cost of bigger sensors, this notion starts to become prohibitive – think FLIR’s thermal iPhone accessory at 80x60 resolution for USD$1000. But the Seek Thermal camera gives you pretty decent resolution – 206x156 – at USD$199, almost a fifth of what FLIR is charging. The accessory fits right into the microUSB connector of your device and you can control it from there. Check out the demo video below.
What will you use it for? Well, safety primarily. You can scan a dark parking lot before going on to your car. Or you can take it when going boating and scan the dark waters for heat-emitting objects. There are actually numerous uses, and these are just some. Would you buy something like this?