Thermal Imaging at CES – FLIR and Seek Thermal

Thermal imaging has become more accessible to the average consumer, thanks to advances in the development of low-cost infrared sensors / microbolometers. FLIR was one of the first to make a breakthrough in this segment with the development of the low-cost Lepton sensor (80×60) that was used in the first-generation FLIR One Thermal Imager for iPhone 5/5s. In the meanwhile, Seek Thermal, a startup, debuted their low-cost microbolometer (206×156) in the Seek Thermal Infrared Camera.

In 2015, FLIR continued to make advancements in the sensor space with the launch of the Lepton 3, a 160×120 microbolometer. This sensor was used in the second-generation FLIR One cameras (including the Android version that we have been using in our reviews of mini-PCs). Seek Thermal, on the other hand, had entered the market with a higher resolution sensor. So, their focus has been on developing new products to widen the appeal / addressable market for that sensor. At CES 2016, FLIR demonstrated a couple of new products based on the Lepton sensors, while Seek Thermal showed the products introduced through the course of 2015.

FLIR

The FLIR Scout TK is a stand-alone and rugged thermal camera with specifications similar to the FLIR ONE (i.e, the same 160×120 Lepton 3 sensor), but, meant for outdoor use. It comes with storage for photos and videos, and they can be transferred to a computer for further review. The FoV is narrow, meant more for viewing objects / animals up to 90m away. There is a 640×480 LCD display on one end, and the industrial design allows for one handed operation. The intended use-case is outdoor enthusiasts who want to spot wildlife in the night or in low light situations, as well as those interested in personal and home security. The product uses an internal Li-ion battery that is rechargeable. It can support up to 5 hours of continuous operation with a fully charged battery.

The TG130, a entry-level spot thermal camera for home and small businesses. It is based on the first-generation Lepton core (80×60 sensor). It is targeted at home users who want to find out insulation issues (places of heat loss in a house). It can also help in determining correctness of HVAC operation, electrical equipment troubleshooting, and refrigerator maintenance. There is no storage media to record to, as the usage involves pointing and clicking to freeze the image with the temperature being part of the OSD. The product uses 3xAAA batteries. It can support up to 4 hours of continuous operation with one set of fully charged batteries.

At the FLIR booth, we had the chance to see working models of both the Scout TK as well as the TG130 along with a host of other thermal imagers from FLIR targeting the professional market. The Scout TK and TG130 are both slated to ship later this quarter.

Gallery: FLIR Booth at CES 2016

The Scout TK will be priced at $599, while the TG130 will be priced more economically at $249 due to the use of the first-generation Lepton sensor and lack of any recording capabilities.

Seek Thermal

Seek Thermal was showing off the camera models introduced over the course of 2015 at CES. These included the Compact and Compact XR thermal imaging cameras. The Compact is suited for indoor analysis while the Compact XR is suitable for outdoor use. They are both available in iOS and Android versions. The main difference between the first-generation Seek Thermal Infrared camera that we reviewed and the Seek Thermal Compact / Compact XR is the availability of zooming capabilities for better focus on the area of interest in the latter. The availability of the ‘optical’ zooming feature enables the Compact to have a range of 300m and the Compact XR to have a range of 550m (compared to the 90m range of the equivalent FLIR cameras). The Compact (indoor use) has a 36 degree FoV, while the Compact XR (outdoor use) has a 20 degree FoV.

Seek Compact

Seek CompactXR

In addition, Seek Thermal also demonstrated the Seek Reveal, which is very similar to the FLIR TG130 in terms of use-cases. The added capabilities include a 300 lm. integrated LED flashlight, ruggedness and the ability to withstand submergence in water. The LCD display has a 240×320 resolution. A micro-USB cable can be used to transfer recorded images. The device has a range of around 150m and has a 36 degree FoV similar to the Compact. All of the Seek Thermal offerings are still based on the original 206×156 thermal sensor. While the Compact and CompactXR retail for $249 and $299 respectively, the Reveal, with its in-built display and smartphone-free operation, retails for $399.

Seek Reveal

Concluding Remarks

The offerings from FLIR and Seek Thermal have given consumers a wide range of thermal imaging products to choose from, depending on the intended use-case. We would like to see FLIR improve their Android app for better compatibility with a wider range of mobile devices. Hopefully, a future update to the Lepton series would help them achieve resolution-parity with the Seek Thermal sensor. That said, FLIR’s MSX (one of the proprietary features of some of FLIR’s cameras that blends the output of an image sensor and the output of the thermal sensor) seems to make up for the disappointing thermal sensor resolution to some extent. On the other side, we would like to see if Seek Thermal can bring in thermal sensors with better resolution at similar price points. On a common note, government restrictions still prevent thermal imagers from offering greater than 9 FPS for videos without going through extensive paperwork. Hopefully, the advent of low-cost thermal imagers like the ones from FLIR and Seek Thermal can help in making this situation better.

Securifi Updates Smart Home Hub Lineup with New Almond 3 Wireless Router

Securifi is famous for bringing out the world’s first commercially available touchscreen router. We have covered them a couple of times in the past. They were one of the first vendors to realize the potential of integrating radios for home automation protocols (ZigBee and Z-Wave) in a wireless router. Google also seems to be adopting this strategy with the OnHub routers which integrate Bluetooth and 802.15.4 support.

Securifi’s family of routers (the Almonds) consists of two product lines – one targeting the high-end market and the other aiming to be more affordable. At CES, Securifi launched the Almond 3, a new member in the second category. The following extract from the press brochure shows how the currently available models compare against each other.

It is obvious that the Almond+ belongs to the high-end line, while the Almond 3 belongs to the affordable category. Like the Almond 2015, the Almond 3 is also based on a Mediatek chipset. The chipset used is likely to be the MT7612E along with MT7621N SoC (waiting for confirmation from Securifi for this) the MT7621A MIPS 1004Kc-based SoC along with MT7602E 2×2:2 802.11n 2.4GHz radio and the MT7612E 2×2:2 802.11ac 5GHz radio. It is an AC1200 router (2×2 802.11ac for 867 MBps in the 5 GHz band and 2×2 in the 2.4 GHz band for 300 Mbps).

The above specifications indicate that the Almond 3 is a definite step up from the Almond 2015, which was a 100 Mbps N300 router. The built-in siren enables some interesting scenarios, particularly as a security alarm when combined with ZigBee door / window magnetic reed sensors. Considering the specifications and the focus on user experience with the touchscreen interface, the Almond 3 targets the average consumer.

Integrating home automation radios in the hardware for the router is only one side of the equation. Other vendors (like Google via TP-Link and Asus and TP-Link itself) have also started to explore this area. The other important ingredient for market success is the user experience. Perfecting the web user interface as well as the mobile apps is a challenge, particularly when home automation is involved.

At CES, Securifi demonstrated their mobile app, and I have to say that it has one of the most user-friendly interfaces to setting up the ‘rules and scenes’ (i.e, how changes reported by one sensor (or, even just the time) can be used to trigger events in other connected devices). They also talked about an innovative idea for implementing geofencing by recognizing the connection status of the user’s smartphone in the router.

Securifi has also opened up their Websockets API. This should help power users and third-party developers to interface with the Almonds / home automation devices and develop their own applications. The other important takeaway from my conversation with Securifi was that they have implemented full cloud-less control of all supported home automation devices on all the Almond routers. I have always been a big proponent of isolating home automation devices from the Internet for security and reliability purposes. Power users on the go have multiple ways to obtain access to the home automation controller (in this case, the Almond device) over the Internet – including, but not restricted to, running a VPN server in the home network. On a general note, I am waiting for a consumer networking equipment vendor to make VPNs more accessible to the general audience. This will be very useful for consumers who don’t want their home automation devices to be at the mercy of a cloud server somewhere on the Internet.

The Almond 3 is slated to become available later this quarter. It will retail for $119. Coupled with a sensor such as this, we believe it is a value-focused solution for the average consumer’s networking and security alarm needs.

ECS Goes Skylake with LIVA One

At CES 2016, ECS displayed their consumer-focused as well as OEM products to the press and business customers. On the direct-to-consumer side, ECS had some 100-series chipset boards on display, but they were all ones that had been announced before (like the Z170-Claymore). However, my main intention was to check out updates to the LIVA mini-PC lineup and also get some information on the 5×5 form factor that ECS had hinted at prior to the show.

In our Intel Compute Stick review, we had talked about the efforts made by Intel to take advantage of a second screen (such as a tablet or smartphone) when interacting with the PC. ECS also had something similar for the LIVA series. They have tied up with Insyde Tools to install necessary support for ShareKanTan on the LIVA mini-PCs that come with the OS pre-installed. In addition to the input options provided by apps such as the Intel Remote Keyboard, this app also allows for display of media on the PC in the second screen.

ECS also took the opportunity at CES to show off their latest addition to the LIVA lineup – the LIVA One. LIVA One is a Skylake mini-PC, which uses a 35W TDP -T class processor. Unlike other members of the LIVA family, this one is larger (1L volume – 173mm x 176mm x 33mm) and also actively cooled. The default configuration from ECS utilizes a Core i3-6100T, a LGA processor. The end user can actually upgrade the CPU after purchase, or install any other CPU after buying a barebones configuration. Even processors such as the Core i7-6700T can be used (as long as the CPU is LGA1151 and has a TDP within 35W).

The LIVA One uses 2x DDR3L SO-DIMMs.It has a free 2.5″ SATA drive slot and also a M.2 SSD slot (SATA interface). The industrial design is stylish and functional, with the front panel including a microSD slot and a USB 3.1 port (with rapid charging features). The default configuration contains a 1×1 802.11ac / BT 4.0 WLAN card, but that can be changed by the end user.

ECS has also used the same chassis design for a mini-PC to target business users. This ‘SF100’ model will support Windows 7 officially. It also supports vPro (thanks to the Q170 chipset) and Intel SBA (Small Business Advantage) technology. Unlike the LIVA One’s DDR3L SO-DIMM slots, the SF100 has the costlier DDR4 SO-DIMM slots that can provide better RAM capacity and performance. It also has a RS-232 port as well as a 2W in-built speaker. The SF100 also uses an Intel I219-LM GbE NIC.

Both the LIVA One and the SF100 can be augmented with an optical drive or extra 2.5″ bay using a special ‘HD Drive Bay’ (shown in the top picture) that connects to the main system via one of the rear USB 3.0 ports. The LIVA One will be priced $168 for the barebones configuration and $450 for the pre-built default configuration. Pricing for the SF100 is not available yet.

Moving on to the mini-STX front (the official name for the 5×5 boards that we first uncovered at IDF 2015), ECS had one of the first motherboards in this form factor on display. The H110SU-02 (with the S standing for the mini-STX form factor in ECS’s nomenclature) is meant for SFF systems, thanks to the low-profile heat sink from Silverstone. ECS and Silverstone have tied up to offer consumers a one-stop shop for those attempting to build a system based on the H110SU-02 mSTX board. The gallery below shows some shots of the motherboard with a low profile heatsink installed.

Gallery: ECS H110SU-02 mSTX 5×5 Motherboard

The full details of the board are provided in the table below. Pricing is not available yet.

On the whole, the consumer products from ECS on display at CES point to where the desktop computing market is headed. The market share for small form factor systems is increasing even as the overall desktop PC market declines. SFF systems are also turning out to be an attractive proposition in the business PC market.