Mobile thermographer prototype

by warren | almost 12 years ago | 0 | 0

Runs in Opera on Android, at http://thermographer.publiclaboratory.org... but is very experimental right now.

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Thermal Imaging Tests with Android Ap

by sara | almost 12 years ago | 0 | 0

During the Community Environmental College workshops with Environmental Justice League we experimented with a free long exposure photo android phone application: camera streak. Here are a couple of resulting images. None of them are that great because the resolution for the images through the application are so low. But I think the various android and iphone application should definitely be further investigated because its much easier than carrying around a computer!

Also included is a photo of the four working Thermal Flashlights made by the community environmental college students. The students had no previous experience with electronics. They are each set to different temperatures and we tried out making different images of the same area with each flashlight.

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Thermal Images for Community Environmental College

by sara | almost 12 years ago | 3 | 0

Over this week, I'm working with Environmental Justice League's Community Environmental College. We are making thermal flashlights and experimenting with thermal images.

Yesterday we made four thermal flashlights. A step by step how to guide for wiring the thermal flashlight for electronics beginners we used is attached. While a group of 8 students worked together on making these, a second group experimented with thermal images. I've attached some of the images they created with the flashlight.

They tried varying the temperature range of the flashlight and imaging the same spot. The first image shows hot water pipes being imaged using the flashlight set to a range of 80 to 100 F. The red pipes clearly visible in this image were not visible in the first image they made of the pipes with the camera set to a range of 70 to 110.

So we could identify which colors correspond to which temperatures the students marked up color wheels with the min and max temperatures and then manually subdivided the wheel. It was pretty basic but it worked quite well.

They also tried imaging people in these different temperature ranges.

They noted that the results of the images varied a lot depending on the surface reflecting the color of the flashlight. The streaky third image was due to reflection of the LED from the back of the white door. They experienced similar troubles with reflective surfaces when trying to image an aquarium.

To make these images we blocked out all of the light in the basement of the Community Environmental College. Students also tested the flashlight as a thermometer to look for AC leaks from the outside of the building.

Working from the video available here, we plan to use the thermal flashlights on thursday to explore the results of varying the temperature range to look for: water damage, over heating circuits, mold. We aim to isolate the temperature ranges appropriate for imaging these different issues and create a short video similar to the one above showing how the flashlight can be used to image a variety of issues.

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Thermal Flashlight Calibration Nomogram

by mathew | almost 12 years ago | 2 | 0

In this Photo

In the photo above the temperature range is set to 0-30 degrees C, and the color divisions within the range are readable.

explaining the nomogram

The nomogram here is simple- the temperature scale is matched to the wedge-shaped rainbow of LED colors on the left side of the page, and the colors all converge to zero on the right. By moving the temperature scale across the chart so that the max and min boundaries of the rainbow touch the temperature scale at the same points as the max and min settings of the thermal flashlight, the range and sensitivity of the flashlight's colors will be visible in the width of the rainbow color bars on the scale.

history/inspiration

Sara Wylie and I were just talking about adding external calibration to the Thermal Flashlight in the form of either switches (1, 2) or knobs (potentiometers).

Sara liked the flexibility of knobs, and the ability to set any range. The only issue was-- how do we display color division of the range without adding an expensive/complicated graphical display to the thermal flashlight. We both liked the idea of a paper chart, and I thought up this simple nomogram. (this page on making war game nomograms is a great expanation/tutorial for complex nomograms). More Nomogram design/math

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Thermal Flashlight as Power Ring

by mathew | almost 12 years ago | 0 | 2

This is a page out of my sketch book-- introducing the idea for thermal flashlight packaging, as well as an alternate method of setting the temperature range, so no re-programming is needed. These features could be added to the surface mount design in progress.

The idea is to include a multi-position switch on the circuit which can be used to set the temperature range. A further idea was to synch the circuit with the computer/video recording of the thermal flashlight by sending out a different rhythmic flashing depending on where the range is set, simply by pushing a range selection button. That way, an operator can use the thermal flashlight wihtout having to record the range it is used in, since that will be a part of the record.

And of course, it should be mounted as a ring because power rings are sweet and if we're going to get kids to do thermal mapping of houses, the equipment should be 1) not easily dropped, and 2) inherently awesome.

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Surface mount mini thermal flashlight

by nadya | almost 12 years ago | 6 | 0

I am sorry I have not documented this fully yet but Jeff says I have to do work in progress in public and not wait until the end so here's the schematic of the thermal flashlight board I made and pngs for milling it if you are into that sort of thing ok more soon or probably not that soon but at some point I hope.

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