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Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

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Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#71

Post by randomdata »

chrismorgan wrote: post #50
andrewia wrote: post #4

This phone has been out since Spring 2022. Any reason for the post? If we want to talk about the utility of a thermal camera, I found it neat. I used a $150 Seek camera to diagnose poor insulation in my bedroom, and one contractor even offered free advice over email since the images were clear enough. I've also used it to find hot ICs on a PCB. The resolution of these lower cost modules isn't great, which you can see…

> Spring 2022 That was last week. (Seasons are a lousy way of describing times for anything other than local, geographically-anchored content. They’re only meaningful in a comparatively narrow band, falling apart if you head much towards the poles or equator—the four seasons model is useless in tropical areas especially—and inverting if you head to the other side of the equator.)

> Seasons are a lousy way of describing times

Given the context, 'spring' is just another way of saying second quarter. It has nothing to do with seasons beyond incidental alignment between calendar quarters and observed seasons in certain geographic areas where the use originated. Indeed, even second quarter breaks down where the Gregorian calendar isn't used, but you have to make assumptions at some point in order to communicate. Context fills in the gaps.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#72

Post by legitster »

motohagiography wrote: post #64

The lack of a replacable battery is infuriating because it's planned obselescence of a FLIR device. I got one of the first CAT s60 phones when they came out and tolerated all the android spyware on it because I really liked having a properly ruggedized phone. Got about 4 years out of it. The flir camera I would say I used most often at night for finding my dogs poop to pick up on neighbours lawns in the dark, but I u…

All things considered, 4 years is pretty good!

Someone explained to me it's more of a supply chain thing than planned obsolescence. Phone technology and batteries specifically have pretty short production lives - keeping a battery in production and in stock for long periods of time can be crippling to your product line when the competitors come out with 10% denser batteries every year.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#73

Post by akita-ken »

motohagiography wrote: post #64

The lack of a replacable battery is infuriating because it's planned obselescence of a FLIR device. I got one of the first CAT s60 phones when they came out and tolerated all the android spyware on it because I really liked having a properly ruggedized phone. Got about 4 years out of it. The flir camera I would say I used most often at night for finding my dogs poop to pick up on neighbours lawns in the dark, but I u…

All those use-cases you've described actually seem really practical, especially the fraud detection. Being able to detect things that would otherwise be invisible or require physical contact to ascertain already makes it a worthwhile EDC tool in my opinion.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#74

Post by ThemalSpan »

legitster wrote: post #72
motohagiography wrote: post #64

The lack of a replacable battery is infuriating because it's planned obselescence of a FLIR device. I got one of the first CAT s60 phones when they came out and tolerated all the android spyware on it because I really liked having a properly ruggedized phone. Got about 4 years out of it. The flir camera I would say I used most often at night for finding my dogs poop to pick up on neighbours lawns in the dark, but I u…

All things considered, 4 years is pretty good! Someone explained to me it's more of a supply chain thing than planned obsolescence. Phone technology and batteries specifically have pretty short production lives - keeping a battery in production and in stock for long periods of time can be crippling to your product line when the competitors come out with 10% denser batteries every year.

I think we can all agree that maximizing profit is a cause, while also acknowledging that the situation is not ideal. There are many solutions to this self-imposed problem, like standardizing the battery interfaces.

I agree most company's have no incentive to do that. I think those incentives should be put in place though.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#75

Post by Villodre »

I had an S60 some 4 years ago, also equipped with a FLIR camera and although I tried to love the phone, I simply couldn't.

For starters it had a mediocre Snapdragon SoC - better than the average cheapophone, but lacking in a product that was in the premium tier regarding price. The FLIR camera was neat, but inferior to the add-on camera I was using at the time, yet still decent. The cherry on top came when the "ruggedised" phone couldn't cope with normal wear and tear and the plastic started to separate from the case, in a manner similar to the grips in an Xbox Controller Elite game pad that I also owned during that time.

At that point I just desisted from having the CAT phone as my mainly driver and mostly relegated it to the role of auxiliary tool just to have it die suddenly on me. I tried to follow CAT's convoluted RMA process (or perhaps their Bullitt licensee who actually make their phones, I can't remember), chock-full of awful chats and sending non-stop repeated information prompts in order to process a return until I realised I bought it from Amazon and just obtained a refund.

As I said, I really tried to like the product but my experience was so horrible that I gave up on "working phones" altogether.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#76

Post by rippercushions »

randomdata wrote: post #71
chrismorgan wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Spring 2022 That was last week. (Seasons are a lousy way of describing times for anything other than local, geographically-anchored content. They’re only meaningful in a comparatively narrow band, falling apart if you head much towards the poles or equator—the four seasons model is useless in tropical areas especially—and inverting if you head to the other side of the equator.)

> Seasons are a lousy way of describing times Given the context, 'spring' is just another way of saying second quarter. It has nothing to do with seasons beyond incidental alignment between calendar quarters and observed seasons in certain geographic areas where the use originated. Indeed, even second quarter breaks down where the Gregorian calendar isn't used, but you have to make assumptions at some point in order…

No, it really isn't, and it's mildly obnoxious to people living in the southern hemisphere (or the tropics, for that matter) when people assume spring = Q2. Mildly because we're used to it, but it's not hard to avoid.

And for better or worse, the Gregorian calendar is the universal civil system now, even in the countries like Saudi Arabia that notionally use other calendars. Even Korean Juche years, Japanese imperial eras etc are aligned to Gregorian years.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#77

Post by FrostKiwi »

Anyone know the resolution of the FLIR camera? Specs don't seem to list the thermal camera resolution, only up-res one. The last revision was kind of weak, low-res with a max of only 120°C or so, if memory serves right. The improvement to : -20°C to 400°C is a happy step forward.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#78

Post by matthewaveryusa »

motohagiography wrote: post #64

The lack of a replacable battery is infuriating because it's planned obselescence of a FLIR device. I got one of the first CAT s60 phones when they came out and tolerated all the android spyware on it because I really liked having a properly ruggedized phone. Got about 4 years out of it. The flir camera I would say I used most often at night for finding my dogs poop to pick up on neighbours lawns in the dark, but I u…

I have a flir as well and I've used it a lot while insulating my house, but the coolest thing I've done was find the exact location of a wasp nest between my walls and annihilating it by injecting a pesticide directly in the middle of the nest with a tiny drill hole. It seems gimmicky at first but it's been a real money-saver.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#79

Post by [deleted] »

tildef wrote: post #11

I used the S62 as a daily driver for a couple of years and it was fairly decent. The convenience of having a thermal camera in your pocket at all times was remarkable, and it's one of those things you kind of miss when it's gone (my daily use for it was checking if the coffee was cool enough to drink--yes, I know my tasting organs provide much of the same functionality...) However, the resolution of the thermal camer…

[deleted]

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#80

Post by jamal-kumar »

I'm thinking the next scientific instrument turned phone accessory is going to be raman spectroscopes. It could easily solve a lot of problems of things like adulterated food and drugs being so common. There's also research done that shows that many regular consumer phones on the market now have CCDs which are even sensitive enough as-is to read the laser reflection and sort out what the chemical is. There's an implementation here as an add on, but I want to see them embedded in the phones themselves! [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OOA-jwY4Dk

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