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Intel puts Movidius AI tech on a $79 USB stick
Last year, Movidius announced its Fathom Neural Compute Stick — a USB thumb drive that makes its image-based deep learning capabilities super accessible. But then in September of last year, Intel bought Movidius, delaying the expected winter rollout of Fathom. However, Intel has announced that the deep neural network processing stick is now available and going by its new name, the Movidius Neural Compute Stick. "Designed for product developers, researchers and makers, the Movidius Neural Compute Stick aims to reduce barriers to developing, tuning and deploying AI applications by delivering dedicated high-performance deep-neural network processing in a small form factor," said Intel in a statement.
FLIR Duo is a GoPro-size thermal camera for drones
FLIR is no stranger to thermal imagery. Its cameras can be found on everything from industrial gear to the iPhone. The company has also been working with aerial tech for over 20 years, and more recently drones with the Zenmuse XT collaboration with DJI and the FLIR Vue. The FLIR Duo brings that same concept to smaller drones -- i.e., the ones that you and I are more likely to own. (Think: the 3DR Solo, or DJI Phantom 2.)
AI-powered cameras make thermal imaging more accessible
As cool as thermal cameras may be, they're not usually very bright -- they may show you something hiding in the dark, but they won't do much with it. FLIR wants to change that with its new Boson thermal camera module. The hardware combines a long wave infrared camera with a Movidius vision processing unit, giving the camera a dash of programmable artificial intelligence. Device makers can not only use those smarts for visual processing (like reducing noise), but some computer vision tasks as well -- think object detection, depth calculations and other tasks that normally rely on external computing power.
FLIR's Scout TK is a $600 pocket-sized thermal camera
FLIR is a company mostly known for making professional-grade thermal vision cameras or smartphone-connected ones like the FLIR One. At this year's CES, however, FLIR is coming out with something completely different; a compact thermal camera that doesn't need a phone at all. It's called the Scout TK, and it's specifically made for use in the rough and tumble outdoors. The monocular device is able to record both still images and video and it's much more weather-resistant than the One. It does have a narrower field of view, but unlike the One, it has a much longer range of up to 100 yards away. As for battery life, it also has about up to five hours of continuous use.
DJI has a thermal imaging camera for drones
DJI has announced that it's partnering with FLIR to create a thermal imaging camera for its Inspire 1 and Matrice 100 drones. The Zenmuse XT camera should be a boon for tasks like spotting fires, search and rescue and measuring the thermal efficiency of homes. The drone company is already by far the most popular for cinematographers and hobbyists, but DJI has lately been targeting industrial operations, having recently launched a pesticide-spraying model. The infrared camera could also help farmers monitor crop growth, and would be useful for folks like police, firefighters and building inspectors.
Graphene could bring night vision to phones and cars
Thermal imaging devices like night-vision goggles can help police, search-and-rescue teams and soldiers to pick out bad guys or victims through walls or in complete darkness. However, the best devices require cryogenic cooling, making them heavy, expensive and slow. Enter graphene, the semi-conducting material that's 100 times stronger than steel -- researchers from MIT have built a chip out of the material that may solve the problem. The resulting infrared sensors were small enough that they could be "integrated in every cellphone and every laptop," according to the study's co-author, Tomas Palacios.
FLIR's second-generation thermal camera now works with (almost) any smartphone
When FLIR launched its first smartphone-based thermal camera at last year's CES, the biggest annoyance people had was that the hardware was baked into an iPhone 5 case. Anyone who wasn't toting Apple's newest two smartphones was understandably aggrieved about that decision. That's why, as a do-over, the company has released a second-generation FLIR One that clips onto the bottom of your smartphone over Lightning or micro-USB, letting Android users in on the fun.
An F1 racer burning rubber in infrared is trippy
FLIR has just shown a dramatic spectrum of Formula 1 racing you may not have even realized you were missing: full infrared. The company filmed Red Bull's RB8 F1 car doing donuts at the Gamma Racing Day in Assen using its FLIR X6580sc and other infrared cameras. As shown in the video below, the drivers are literally surrounded by flames and heat coming off the tires, engine and exhaust. You can also see the still glowing tracks left by the tires, Back to the Future style, and the hot bits of rubber that flew off. The only thing missing is the smoke, which is a good thing -- as shown by a regular camera, it almost completely covers the car at one point.
This case turns your iPhone into a night vision camera
Thermal cameras are expensive, which is why they're mostly used by firefighters, contractors and psychotic aliens. Fortunately, that's all about to change thanks to the FLIR One, which is an iPhone case with a tiny thermal camera stuck on the back. All you have to do is strap your iPhone 5 or 5s into the dock and, once you've downloaded the app, you're ready to go. Using multi-spectral dynamic imaging, it can create hybrid images, adding extra detail to the thermal pictures, or plain-ol' thermal pictures in the dark. When you point it at a subject, the FLIR will also give you a temperature reading of what you're pointing the device at.
DraganFlyer X4 UAV puts the camera where it needs to be, even when the floor is lava
It's been a while since we've heard from Draganfly, a name familiar to connoisseurs of unmanned aerial photography. The company's latest outing, the DraganFlyer X4, is a four-rotor UAV that measures only 30.5-inches across and since it ships with your choice of either a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX580, Watec WAT-902H2 Ultimate (for shooting in low light), FLIR Photon TAU (infrared), or the Highg Res 480 Board Camera (analog motion video with an 8GB DVR), we imagine that this thing ain't going to be cheap. That said, if you are a well-heeled creepy stalker, southern border vigilante, or even someone with legitimate military / industrial business, there are plenty of features to make it worth a second look, including: computerized stabilization, altitude hold (maintains its position in the air without user input), and an automatic landing feature that kicks in if the control link is lost. But most importantly for the airborne auteur, this guy sports a wireless video downlink that sends the viewfinder signal that can be displayed either on the device's handheld controller or a pair of video goggles, allowing real-time manipulation of zoom, tilt, and shutter settings. Get a closer look at the thing after the break.
