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
Sample Thermal Images
A number of comments have come in with requests for thermal image samples taken by the Seek Thermal camera in day-to-day circumstances. A few cases are provided below. It can be seen that the temperature is not very accurate - for example, the temperature of a component in the refrigerator is reported as -13 C, when the compartment is set to be at 0 C. Also, the skin temperature is reported to be around 32 C, when it is obviously around 37 C (updated: see comments section).
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soccerballtux - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
oh, sorry, I def don't bother reading before commenting, and I'm not trolling, I really don'tIII-V - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
There's some in the second gallery, with the images from the camera hooked up to the Dell tablet. But yeah, the LG gallery was basically useless...icrf - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
I bought one a few months ago and took a variety of pictures. I initially got it to check for water infiltration behind my basement wall, and to check for insulation problems in my new house. Didn't find much in either case, but it's still a neat toy.Here's a wood fire in my fireplace, doors half closed. It shows the cropping of out of range heat sources: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0nI7vvE2kss/VMF...
Here's the piping from my water heater (it's a forced induction model, the large diagonal pipe is the exhaust, and the house originally had radiators, hence the distribution block above, but is still using the hot water for hydronic heating, ie, pipes going across the room is going to the forced air system): https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-DOkKb4enigY/VMF...
Speaking of the force air system, here's the piping that is the radiator: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ZpLEEC3JM40/VMF...
Here's the poor circulation in my hand: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S_2o-FJkBF0/VMF...
A friend's dog: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ZfoakkyVmZg/VMF...
My gas range after cooking something: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vWoxkzCWCAs/VMF...
Cooking a sandwich on an aluminum griddle: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IpDCRdtM_24/VMF...
Selfie, mouth open, but inhaling through my nose (it was neat to see the change when inhaling/exhaling): https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-SAf2x2-4vMk/VIR...
My girlfriend wearing a down jacket and glasses taking a drink of water from a bottle: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-T6RqL-dhM0Q/VIR...
I have a neat video of water boiling, but that's a little harder to link to.
Also, I have a Moto X and a Nexus 7, and their USB plugs face opposite directions. I use the phone for normal pictures, and the tablet for selfies. Works out pretty good.
Any requests?
edwpang - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
Pretty cool!bp2008 - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
I have two of these for Android, and a $20 Nubee non-contact thermometer from Amazon. The Seek thermal cameras are both the same; they read consistently about 8 degrees Fahrenheit lower than the Nubee.After months of inaccurate readings, there is still no way to calibrate the temperature shown on-screen and in snapshots or videos.
I have not measured properly, but the frame rate feels like it is below 6 FPS (even on FAST android devices), and it drops a frame every time it self-calibrates (every few seconds) so its video is inconsistent and choppy.
It also does a poor job of seeing fine temperature differences, compared to more expensive thermal cameras. Sure, it will pick a cat out of the bushes just fine, but it will not show you the studs behind drywall nearly as well as a more expensive thermal camera.
SilthDraeth - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
ICRF , do you by chance have an empty field or something, that you could see if a dog, or cat shows up at 100 ft, or more in the dark?icrf - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
There's a gallery up on the mfg's website with a bunch more random photos: http://www.thermal.com/gallery/I remember when I bought it, pre-user gallery, they specifically had one of a guy hopping a fence from 50 feet away. I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow for a week, so probably won't have the option to find something nice. Best I could do are my neighbor's dogs in their fenced in yard.
Daylight or dark shouldn't make much difference. If anything, dark would be easier to spot, thermally, because the background might be cooler.
blue_urban_sky - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
I have 2 requests, Could you take a pic of boiling water with the reported temperature and also a glass of water with a lot of ice cubes in again with the temp reading. Thinking ice in water should equalise to roughly 0 deg C.Looking to get accuracy so also altitude of the tests if you have it :) or your rough location and I'll find it.
Mr Perfect - Friday, May 1, 2015 - link
How does it do if you point it inside your desktop? It would be interesting to find hot spots that aren't being cooled properly.FYoung - Saturday, May 2, 2015 - link
Those photos are neat, icrf. Especially the one of your hand.