Thermal Imaging for a drone: FLIR announces new cameras at CES

With the popularity of drones at a consumer level it’s often not reported the huge growth in the use of drones commercially and at CES Thermal Imaging company FLIR have announced a product that hits right in a sweet spot for some.

Thermal Imaging or heat maps are an amazing real-time video technology that is now used in sports broadcasting (Formula 1) and of course in commercial applications.  Electricians use thermal imaging technology to find and diagnose hot-spots in wiring.

FLIR is a global leader in thermal imaging and today announced a range of new products, the one that caught my eye was the Duo and Duo R which are made to suit drone flights – there’d be a stack of applications for that not least in construction and mining.

Described by FLIR as being in “the popular action came size and shape” I’ll tell you it’s a Thermal Imaging GoPro.

Many drones are made to fit a GoPro for image and video capture, with stabilisation gimbals designed to fit them and support stable imagery from them.

What FLIR have done is built their technology into that form factor.

At $999 and $1299 (for the highly calibrated and pixel accurate model) in the US these are not cheap, and we don’t have Aussie pricing yet but while it seems steep, remember it’s not just for drones, can be used handheld or on any GoPro like mount most likely. Cool tech.

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