ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC, EP121 and Eee Tablet get official - SlashGear

ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC, EP121 and Eee Tablet get official - SlashGear: "ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC, EP121 and Eee Tablet get official
By Chris Davies on Monday, May 31st 2010 1 Comment

Worth Reading?
NoYes

+36 [52 votes]

Computex 2010 doesn’t kick off in earnest until tomorrow, but a few of the big name exhibitors have snuck in ahead with some early press conferences today. ASUS are first out of the gate with their iPad competition, and they’re taking a three-pronged approach: the ASUS Eee Pad will be available in 10-inch (EP101TC) and 12-inch (EP121) variants, and offer Windows Embedded Compact 7 and Windows 7 Home Premium respectively, while the ASUS Eee Tablet is a monochrome digital notebook, packing 2,450dpi touchscreen input sensitivity and targeted at note-takers like students.

ASUS Eee Pad EP121 540x374

The ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC doesn’t have finalised specs as yet, but it measures just 12.2mm thick and weighs 675g. The Windows Embedded Compact 7 OS promises the same flexibility and interface as existing users are expecting, but there’ll be more cloud-integration too.

As for the ASUS Eee Pad EP121, that gets Windows 7 Home Premium for everything you’d expect a notebook to run, powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo CULV processor. That also means it’ll have the usual notebook connectivity, so expect USB and a webcam. ASUS have apparently also developed a keyboard dock, similar to what Apple offer for the iPad, for when you’re deskbound. Neither model is expected to hit the market until Q1 2011, with prices tipped at between $399 and $499.

Finally, the ASUS Eee Tablet is a good example of very specialised segment targeting. It uses a non-backlit monochrome LCD display, not E Ink, and as such as 0.1-second page transitions. There’s also a 2-megapixel camera, which ASUS envision students using to snap images of lecture slides and then annotate them with the high-resolution touchscreen and stylus. Sync is via USB or microSD card, there’s a battery good for up to 10hrs and various apps that give the impression of using a paper notebook – only one that you can search through more readily. The Eee Tablet is expected in September 2010, priced between $199 and $299.

ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC 150x100

ASUS Eee Pad EP121 150x100

ASUS Eee Tablet 150x100



Press Release:

Stay Connected and Multitask with the Eee Pad

Engineering excellence meets stunning design in the ASUS Eee Pad, an ultra-slim and light yet high-performance slate device designed to provide users with a real time cloud computing experience. The Eee Pad will be available in two configurations.

The 12″ Eee Pad EP121 is a full-featured slate computer that serves as a multimedia player, e-reader, and compact computing device. Powered by a CULV Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor and the Windows® 7 Home Premium operating system, it effortlessly handles multitasking tasks whether enabling users to check their email and calendars, have video conferences, or process Microsoft Word and Excel documents simultaneously. The ASUS Eee Pad EP121 offers two convenient modes of character input-an embedded virtual keyboard or an innovative hybrid keyboard/docking station design. All of this power is available in a personal computing device that delivers up to 10 hours of usage.

For users seeking additional mobility, ASUS is proud to present the 10” Eee Pad EP101TC that runs Windows Embedded Compact 7, which provides an engaging user experience and delivers instant connectivity to the Windows world. It also provides a familiar full-featured user experience across various connected devices and cloud computing services.

Press Release:

ASUS Provides Tomorrow’s Technologies Today at Computex 2010

Innovative Eee Pad and Eee Tablet extend ASUS’ leadership in Cloud Computing

ASUS’ leadership in innovation and design will once again be the focus at Computex 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan. ASUS will proudly showcase a wide range of products across five major categories: cloud computing, gaming, enthusiast-level PC components, multimedia and green computing. As a technological leader in cloud computing, ASUS offers a broad lineup of cloud-connected devices featuring on-the-fly data and multimedia sharing capabilities that consumers crave in today’s market.

The Notepad Goes Digital with the Eee Tablet
Innovation meets cloud computing at Computex 2010 with the ASUS Eee Tablet. With a 2450 dpi touch resolution screen, the Eee Tablet is one of the world’s most accurate and sensitive digital note taking devices, and gives the user the feel of writing on paper. Users can select one of the built-in notepad templates and have the option to store, sort and tag, organize or browse through them. Real time text annotations can also be made on-the-fly. The Eee Tablet makes reading easy, with text file page turns taking just 0.1 seconds-nine times faster than the page turns of normal e-readers. Reading documents or books remains easy on the users’ eyes even after prolonged viewing periods.

The ASUS Eee Tablet features a built-in 2 megapixel camera that captures detailed images, letting the user grab screenshots of lecture slides and write notes on them instantly. It easily syncs up with a PC or notebook via USB or Micro SD to ensure that all notes, content, and calendars are constantly kept up-to-date. With up to 10-hours of battery life, the Eee Tablet has enough power for a variety of tasks. At the end of the day, users not only have an electronic notepad, but a media player and e-reader as well.



- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Nathan's Economic Edge: Morning Update/ Market Thread 5/28

Nathan's Economic Edge: Morning Update/ Market Thread 5/28: "Morning Update/ Market Thread 5/28
Good Morning,

Equity futures are flat following yesterday's 284 point jaunt. That was a ridiculous 97% up day by volume on the NYSE. Now, normally I would consider that a “panic” buying day, but it came on much lower volume. Remember, volume confirms price, and volume hasn’t confirmed any direction but down for the past 3 years.

And last night it dawned on me what’s occurring is not the same thing as what used to occur in the good old days of 90ish percent up or down days… Of course you know that the market is extremely volatile, but we’ve had SIX 90%+ down days in the past few weeks to go along with another couple 90%+ up days (no follow-through on the upside, only on the downside). These have not just been 90%, they’ve been in the high 90’s. Now combine that fact with the fact that four banks had perfect trading quarters… the conclusion is that HFT (High Frequency Trading) has become so good and so fast at chasing short term momentum that all the machines get on the same side of the trade way faster and more efficiently than they used to. I mean, come on – 97% of all the trading volume was long yesterday, that’s simply absurd. Was mom and pop going long because we finally broke back above 1,090? Hardly, these lopsided days are yet another sign of how HFT and a very few players have taken over the markets. I reiterate; the markets no longer exist, they are a computer simulation.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Gmail has become unusably slow - Gabriel Weinberg's Blog

Gmail has become unusably slow - Gabriel Weinberg's Blog: "Gmail has become unusably slow
By
Gabriel Weinberg
on May 28, 2010 8:35 AM
When I switched to Gmail in 2004, I believed the hype. Never delete a message again--no need. We have tons of space, and you can search it all really fast like Google.

That time has passed. Gmail has gotten slower and slower for me, and as of the last few weeks it has become unusably slow. Before you ask, yes, I've tried it across lots of browsers and computers.

It can take 20sec to switch labels, and even longer to search for something. But here's the worst part--it takes just as long to send a simple message!?! Why? What does sending have to do with anything?

It's become the bottleneck in my day, and I don't know what to do about it. And I'm not alone.

A few days ago I decided to start taking action. First I emailed support. OK, first, I tried to email support.

Have you ever tried to email Google support? It's almost impossible to find the contact form. Here's the support home page. I dare you to find out where to report this slowness issue.

You get to this page on slowness. After going through the wizard, you click on 'report your issue' at the bottom, and it takes you here. Wait, that's not a contact form, and you can't get to one from that page! Anyway, here is a contact form; I found it going through another problem wizard.

Needless to say, I haven't heard a response :)

Next step: I disabled chat, buzz & tried the older versions of Gmail. No luck. Then I disabled all labs, after which I perceived a very modest improvement, but still unusable.

Next I removed most of my labels. I have four now (down from 32). This seemed to help a bit as well, but still not much.

So this morning I went drastic. I deleted all my contacts and started deleting mail. Ridiculous huh? That totally breaks the original selling point of Gmail, but like I said I'm at wits end here.

Deleting stuff has resulted in the biggest improvement so far, but it's still slow. Perhaps a bit better than unusable now, but still terrible.

You are currently using 4247 MB (56%) of your 7459 MB.

In a last ditch effort, I bought some extra storage from Google thinking maybe I'd get some kind of premium level service. So far, no.

Google's been recently launching lots of cloud products, most recently a storage product to compete with Amazon's S3.

In other words, they obviously have the resources to make Gmail fast. So what's the deal? They must know about the slowness. The only reasonable explanation is that they are consciously under-resourcing it. Again, why?

Lame! (cut from South Park's AWESOM-O)

Update: there are also a lot of good comments on HN.

Update2: after a bunch of testing with my account, I'm confident at least my slowness involves something around having more than 4GB of mail. I deleted a lot of messages and got down to 3.6GB. It was then relatively fast again. I then sent myself a 25MB file (the limit) repeatedly until I got back up to 4GB. Right after 4GB, it got slow. Go figure.
Follow me on Twitter. Or in your feed reader. Or by email.



- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Ballmer just opened the Second Envelope | Monday Note

Ballmer just opened the Second Envelope | Monday Note: "Ballmer just opened the Second Envelope
May 30, 2010 - 8:45 pm | Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée

You know the business lore joke. The departing CEO meets his successor and hands him three envelopes to be opened in the prescribed order when trouble strikes. First crisis, the message in envelope #1 says: Blame your predecessor. Easy enough. Another storm, the the CEO opens the second envelope: Reorganize. Good idea. And when calamity strikes yet again, he reaches for the third: Get three envelopes…

This past Tuesday, Steve Ballmer reorganized Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division, let go of its execs, Robbie Bach and J Allard, and moved a few more pieces around. All wrapped in the most mellifluous, Orwellian language we’ve seen from Microsoft in awhile. The full memo is here. We’re treated to encomiums to great work, friendship, spending more time with one’s family, leaving on a high note…under the guise of decency, this is indecent.
Ballmer’s view of executive leadership doesn’t admit standing up and taking responsibility. He can’t say ‘I screwed up’ and then explain what he’ll do to rectify the situation. No. Instead, two gents are fingered while they pretend they aren’t being blamed. In a surreal, a cappella farewell memo, J Allard writes to his soon former troops:
‘No one can touch our talent, our impact or our ambition. We’re the only high-tech company with the track record and self-confidence to reinvent ourselves as we have. If you want to change the world with technology, this is still the best tribe out there.’

Robbie Bach dutifully plays his part in the down-is-actually-up corporate farce. He gives a long exit interview to the Microsoft-friendly blog TechFlash where he claims the dual departures are coincidental, that everything is fine. What does he have to say about tablets? Nothing much:
‘Well, tablet is an area that will evolve going forward. Certainly it’s a focus for what we’re doing in the Windows space, and how they’re thinking that space. We’re going to have a bunch of netbooks and tablet stuff that’s in the works there. We’ll just see how that evolves. I don’t think there’s anything earth-shattering about that. It’s just another set of devices, and we’ll figure out how we make sure we bring a good offering to consumers.’
And, regarding the now defunct Courier tablet:
‘Courier, first of all, wasn’t a device. The project and the incubation and the exploration we did on Courier I view as super important. The “device” people saw in the video isn’t going to ship, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t learn a bunch and innovate a bunch in the process. And I’m sure a bunch of that innovation will show up in Microsoft products, absolutely confident of it.’
Serves us right for not reading the small print on the screen during the demo. These guys obviously think we’re idiots. That’s their privilege, but they ought to be a little more discrete about their low regard for us.

Not everyone buys this BS. One blogger, Horace Dediu, offers what many believe is the right explanation: Robbie Bach was fired because he lost the HP account. As the largest PC maker, HP is a hugely important Microsoft customer. A few weeks ago, HP acquired Palm for its WebOS smartphone software platform. The slap in Microsoft’s face still resonates; it’s a verdict on the failed Windows Mobile offering and a negative prognosis on its upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series operating system for smartphones. Days after the acquisition, Mark Hurd, HP’s CEO, let it be known that WebOS will be used in connected printers. As a final blow, HP’s (future) Slate Tablet, once held high as a Windows 7 device, will also use Palm’s WebOS.

Steve Ballmer has always been Microsoft’s most powerful salesman. That he lost the HP mobile devices account—and it was Ballmer who lost it, not Robbie Bach—is yet one more reason why Microsoft shareholders are troubled. Their unhappiness can be charted by comparing two stock price graphs, spanning the January 2000 - May 2010 period. Microsoft’s stock dropped from $56 to $25.80…

…while Apple shares rose from $25 to $256.88:

The morning after Steve Ballmer opened the proverbial Second Envelope, Apple’s market cap, the total value of its shares, surpassed Microsoft’s. In Wall Street terms, Apple is now the largest high-tech company, worth about $230B, a few percentage points ahead of Microsoft. Across all industries, Steve Jobs’ company is now second only to an oil company, Exxon, at $285B. When questioned about Apple overtaking Microsoft, Ballmer had this to say:
‘It is a long game. We have good competitors but we too are very good competitors,’ he said. ‘I will make more profit and certainly there is no technology company on the planet that is as profitable as we are.’

When it comes to profits, Ballmer is willing to take credit.

Over the last decade, Wall Street has declined to reward Microsoft for its superior profit. The explanation is simple: Professional investors don’t believe Ballmer, and they don’t see bigger profits in Microsoft’s future. Conversely, they bid up Apple’s shares precisely because they think the company will keep growing revenue and profits. Apple has managed to enter new, growing markets, a feat Ballmer has repeatedly failed to accomplish.

January 2000 was when Steve Ballmer was made CEO of Microsoft. Yes, we can discount the year 2000, that’s when the Internet Bubble burst causing most high-tech shares to collapse. Still, since the end of 2000, Microsoft stock has stagnated, hovering between $25 and $30.
This never appeared to faze Ballmer. While we joke about the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field, Microsoft shareholders ought to worry about Steve Ballmer’s own distortion, and about the self-inflicted effects of such a strong field.
We all remember Vista, it was a godsend for Apple. Did Ballmer acknowledge that there were problems? What about the Xbox 360 reliability nightmare? The apologies were left to underlings. Then Google comes out of nowhere to take 65% of the Search market, leaving Microsoft with an Apple-like market share (I’m referring to Macs, not iPods). In MP3 players, Microsoft failed again and again in its attempts to unseat the dominant (65% market share) iPod/iTunes combo. Social networks? A tiny investment (1.6%) in Facebook. And where is Microsoft in the Microblogging world, a.k.a Twitter? Nowhere, the old Microsoft Messenger is fading away.

Now we have the most recent Microsoft failure: Smartphones. When the iPhone came out in 2007, Ballmer pronounced it a “passing fad’’. Then, in 2008, he promised that Windows Mobile would have 40% market share by 2012. To be fair, he did recognize the failure in October 2009: ‘[We] screwed up with Windows Mobile.’ The platform was effectively dead. Earlier this year in Barcelona, Ballmer introduced his new smartphone OS, Windows Phone 7 Series, available in time for the Holidays. Two months after the Barcelona event, two Kin phones emerge to a lukewarm reception…and neither of them run on the old generation software, nor the next one, orphaned at birth.

Undeterred, Ballmer now predicts there will be 30 million Windows Phone 7 smartphones sold in 2011. Ballmer has proudly proclaimed there will be no iPod or iPhone in his household, so that’s a few Windows 7 Phones sold right there. As for the rest of the 30 million… has he heard of Android? At last week’s Google I-O, the company announced there were over 100,000 Android phones activated every day, more than 35 million Android phones this year. Given the enthusiasm of handset makers for Google’s OS, they’ll probably sell twice as many next year. Ballmer’s Reality Distortion Field is overheating.

There’s no dearth of advice for Ballmer to right the ship. You can find Galen Gruman’s at Infoworld and Anders Bylund’s at the Motley Fool. But I’m afraid none of it will work. The same leadership will cause the same effects. Ballmer is running out of envelopes.

One of Microsoft’s problems, paradoxically, is that it makes a lot of money. It can spend 15% of revenue in R&D—about $9B a year—with no market breakthrough to show for it. Great concept demos and prototypes… and then nothing. (How many new Googles, Facebooks, and Twitters could we VCs fund with that kind of money?…)

A bigger problem is Microsoft’s Board of Directors. Ten women and men with distinguished backgrounds ranging from banking to pharma, from university president to venture capitalist. (There’s a lonely entrepreneur there, Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix. He’s a math whiz, which could explain the NetFlix prize.)
Three out of the ten members are old-time friends, connected through Harvard (Gates and Ballmer) and Stanford (Ballmer and Marquardt). Such closeness makes it difficult to make painful decisions. Furthermore, it’s not obvious how a research mathematician, the President of Harvey Mudd College—a terrific place for gifted kids—an auto executive, and a banker can parse the finer but essential points of a mobile software strategy. The PowerPoint slides look professional, the occasional demo looks good… but what can a “generalist’’ director do?

In theory, the directors’ most important function is to hire and fire the CEO. But how independent are the Microsoft directors? How could they get the CEO to open the third envelope?

Microsoft didn’t have Apple’s stroke of luck. Fire one if its founders who goes on to start two companies, Pixar and NeXT, and then comes back twelve years later, tempered by the experiences, good and bad, ready to lead the company to an amazingly successful second act. Except for Ballmer’s two-year stint at Procter & Gamble, all he and Gates have ever known is Microsoft.

So, there we are. An immensely successful company, still making large amounts of money but unable to go beyond its original Windows + Office + Exchange franchise, left behind by a combination of newcomers such as Google and Facebook with the old frenemy, Apple.

Someday, a large institutional holder will get tired of waiting, tired of watching yet another rah-rah, ‘the future will be great’ speech from Ballmer, and they’ll dump their shares. That might shock the Board into taking the required drastic action. Take a look at the institutional ownership of Microsoft stock. Many have already started selling portions of their holdings.

Next week in Los Angeles we have the Wall Street Journal’s D8 conference (the speaker line-up is here). Steve #1 and Steve #2 will be interviewed on stage by Walt Mossberg, the newspaper’s high-tech guru. We’ll see how Walt broaches the Second Envelope question with Steve #2. Will he pose hard questions or toss softballs, allowing Ballmer to give one more of his now tired and tiring ‘We’ll win…eventually’ speeches?

Come to think of it, Steve Numero Uno might very well heap praise on Microsoft’s CEO, he likes him just the way he is: with enemies like Ballmer, who needs friends?

I’ll be in attendance, and will report back next week.



- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Make - IR thermal imaging cameras

Make - IR thermal imaging cameras: "Makers and Making: IR thermal imaging cameras

1.

1 to 15 of 15
c0redump
May 15th 2007
I've been reading the IET journal article on infra-red thermal imaging cameras, and their medical applications. It mentions that a thermal imaging camera costs about £20,000 (about $40,000?)! Now, my question is this: why so expensive? Is it something to do woth the low volume of sales? Or is there some part or parts that really puts the price up?

Way back in the 1970s, I saw a thermal imaging camera that could show variations in body temperature. It showed my glasses (actual glass lenses back then) as black, opaque to IR. The lens in the camera was made of germanium -- yes, a shiny metal lens! Is that the reason for the high cost? Do modern IR cameras still have germanium lenses?

Hope somebody who's more familiar with IR cameras can answer this! Would be great to make a thermal imager, but it looks like a tricky problem if glass lenses can't be used.

John Honniball
Myself248
May 15th 2007
The microbolometer in a thermal camera is incredibly difficult to manufacture, but not $40,000 difficult. The trick is that since they're seen as high-end devices, any sensors with flaws are discarded, instead of built into cheap cameras. If they were a consumer-grade item, more defects would be acceptable and manufacturing would get cheaper. It's a chicken-and-egg problem.

Anyway, prices are coming down, you can get a very nice thermal camera for $5,000 or so now. Do some research, if you come up with a DIY method I'd be interested!
cajunfj40
May 16th 2007
Hello c0redump,

Myself248 is essentially correct regarding high-cost medical thermal imaging cameras. Low volumes, no defect tolerance, very high quantities of FDA red tape to qualify the device, insurance against lawsuits if it fails to see something, etc. all lead up to a very high end-user price.

What is your application? If you just want to see 'hot spots' and don't need the 'false color' image, you can take the IR filter off of a B&W video camera and 'see' IR. Google IR and B&W camera and you'll find oodles of links. Some camera sensors are more sensitive in the IR range than others, so look around to see what others have played with and had good results with. You may even be able to find a filter that blocks everything except IR, which would effectively increase the sensitivity of the sensor - it won't be blinded by bright lights, just the IR portion of that light. To do a quick check to see if a camera can see IR, flash a remote control into the lens while you watch the monitor output. If you can see the flash, the sensor can see IR.

If you're looking at medical applications, that's a whole other ballgame. I work in R&D designing cardio and neuro stimulation leads and adapters, and the amount of testing and red tape we need to present a case to the FDA that our device is 1) safe, 2) effective 3) better than the currently available stuff is quite expensive. I've got a lead design sitting in a tester that's over 270 million flex cycles, and it has to reach 400 million before it is acceptable. at 15hz, that's over a year of continuous testing. The tester, a Bose Enduratec (and you thought they just built speakers!) was not cheap, and our time to administer the test is not cheap either.

If you want a case study for why the medical products industry is and should be paranoid about testing, and why we charge so much (because that testing is expensive) Google the Therac-25. A software fault caused at least 6 known extreme overdoses of radiation therapy. A thermal imaging camera isn't in the same class - it does not emit stuff at the patient - but the idea is the same, in that if it harms or fails to detect harm to a patient the manufacturer may be held liable.

Have fun!
-cajun
HiroProtagonist
May 16th 2007
cajunfj40 sez: 'If you just want to see 'hot spots' and don't need the 'false color' image, you can take the IR filter off of a B&W video camera and 'see' IR. Google IR and B&W camera and you'll find oodles of links.'

This won't help the original poster if he's truly looking for IR thermal. Thermal imaging uses long wave IR. Normal camera sensors are sensitive to short wave IR, but this won't show thermal 'hot spots'.

c0redump: I saw an article on the web a while ago about a guy who made his own thermal imaging camera for under $100. He used the polymer sensors from PIR detectors - it was *very* low-res though. Unfortunately I couldn't find the article with a quick google, but it may still be out there.
machinemaker
May 17th 2007
Not sure if this helps, but I used to use a thermal imaging camera for trouble shooting industrial wiring. It was a camera made by Fluke the same folks that make multimeters. It worked great for finding loose connections, bad breakers, failing components. When you took images of people you could see quite a bit of difference in surface temperatures and it was a couple grand. However, Fluke products are a bit pricey and it had software for comparing images etc. I have to believe that one could build it cheaper.
Mysterio101
Oct 13th 2008
You can make a simple thermal imaging camera with $50 or maybe even less. it doesn't have an LCD though, it's kinda like a 'mechanical TV'. I'll tell you more later.

Bye all!
c0redump
Nov 30th 2008
@Mysterio101: yes, please do tell us more about this technique!
alankilian
Nov 30th 2008
One of the guys in the Twin Cities Robotics Group (tcrobots.org) works on
the Fluke IR cameras. They are down to $4,500 now according to this page:
http://www.transcat.com/catalog/productdetail.aspx?itemnum=98589TE

Sometimes he bring a test camera to a meeting, and it's great fun drawing
words on the wall with your finger and seeing them with the camera.
Huisjen
Dec 8th 2008
I'm getting into the home energy auditing business. I just bought a Flir/Extech i5 camera for the job. Its about $3000. It has an 80x80 pixel array, which isn't super high resolution, but is good enough to see the swath of cold left by air leaking around doors, windows, and sill plates.
wbeaty
Dec 15th 2008 edited
The lens would be the expensive part!

Hundred-pixel thermal camera $10:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070203225204/http://users.bestweb.net/~hobbs/footprints/fpspie11.pdf

Phil Hobbs' project uses ferroelectric/pyroelectric polyvinylidene PDVF film, the same sensor in IR motion burglar alarms and security floodlights.. To avoid buying 1000 gigohm resistors and to improve diode muxed switching, he uses light-biased red LEDs as the diodes.

Note that pyro plastic film only responds to temperature *changes.* Either it only can see moving sources (a thermal 'frog's eye' effect,) or the camera needs a rotating chopper wheel.

I don't think he mentions the lens. Pinhole? Polyethelene fresnel lens? Telescope mirror?
cashsale
Dec 17th 2008
Seems like something useful could be created with a single pixel of IR-sensitive material and a mechanical mirror/voice-coil scanning arrangement. Sensitivity would be horrible, but a tripod might allow one to produce a fairly high resolution image given enough time - seconds, minutes?. There would be some averaging as a result of the exposure time.

Yet another idea not suitable for the original poster, but a thought nonetheless.
MarissaLamb
Feb 2nd 2009 edited
The price of the technology has come down a ton. We are an HVAC company and shopped several cameras in the FLIR line. Overall we liked the FLIR B200 and FLIR B250 the best but also considered the FLIR B40 FLIR B50 and FLIR B60.

Ultimately we liked the ability to add aditional lenses with the B250 even though the B60 had a higher pixel count.
jschuch
Feb 6th 2009
If I were going to tackle this, I'd start with one of the inexpensive IR Thermometers that Harbor Freight is selling. Figure out how to get a signal out of the thing, maybe put a pinhole over the sensor to tighten up the dot size, and then build some sort of mechanical scanner. The scan speed would depend on the responsiveness of the sensor.

Would be a fun project.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96451

John
chaz_p
Aug 1st 2009
what do people think to these are they the correct lens or am going down the wrong route?

http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Sensors/Thermal-Sensors/TPA81-Thermopile-array-sensor/77927/kw/78-0792?source=googleps&utm_source=googleps
i really want a thermal imager to hunt with but dont want to pay thousands
ttgrthomas
Aug 4th 2009
One rotor simple-radio-controlled or telemetry-controlled helicopters are commercially available.
These Search & Rescue and Security helicopters usually are equipped with a very good digital camera.
Sadly though, far fewer UAV helicopters currently have IR Infra-red heat imaging cameras onboard.

[ quote from a recent makezine commentator ] -
'The trick is that since they're seen as high-end devices, any sensors with flaws are discarded, instead of built into cheap cameras. If they were a consumer-grade item, more defects would be acceptable and manufacturing would get cheaper. It's a chicken-and-egg problem.
Anyway, prices are coming down, you can get a very nice thermal camera for $5,000 or so now. Do some research, if you come up with a DIY method I'd be interested!' [ End Quote ]

So, on that note [ immediately above ], why not design, build and offer for sale very reliable, foolproof radio or telemetry operated **** one rotor UAV camera helicopters **** for Search & Rescue and Security purposes?
I cannot yet find any Extended Range versions with a fuel cell and compressed, metal-hydride or liquid hydrogen options that are for sale to us technologically hampered civilians.

Once done, you'll sell many THOUSANDS worldwide. Afterwards, maybe then you'll have enough of a customer base so that you can contact all your clients
& offer a ' consumer ' quality version of the IR Infra-red heat imaging camera .... for Search & Rescue and Security use.

Remember, limited range [ paltry poor flight duration ] is currently the main limiting factor in [ common civilian ] UAV Camera Drone technology today.

Doesn't have to be that way though .......

Me, I want one UAV at ' elevation ' immediately above me with a telemetry operated telephoto lense onboard it that's pointed at the other Extended Range UAV Helicopter up to 10 miles downrange. This way, a constant 'line of sight '
is maintained between the UAV hovering almost immediately above me and the one that's out there up to 10 miles radius from my vehicle.

With this very interesting strategy, I'm guessing that I'm technically ' legal ' with current FCC rules on using unpermitted Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Right? The rule says that a ' line of sight ' must be maintained at all times.

Any questions? Find a very rare copy of 'Electric Car' magazine from 1995. Alan Cocconi at AC Propulsion in San Dimas, California was featured in this low-circulation ' market test ' magazine about electric vehicles. Call www.acpropulsion.com . Read all about the ' So Long ' UAV and Alan's experience with UAV camera drones in the 1980's & 1990's.

While you're at it, pick up a 248 [ maximum ] horsepower Electric Vehicle Motor with the necessary PWM / MOSFET power control electronics. Price? A mere $27,000. Best of the best for sure!

This powerful electric vehicle motor is currently installed in the www.acpropulsion.com T-Zero sports car and the new Tesla electric sports car at www.telsamotors.com

Bring me onboard in your company if I can spill any more profitable beans.

Employment is very scarce for those with less than a proper 4-year degree right now ....

480.528. 0 6 3 2, Mr. Thomas

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Web Start-Ups Making Deals for Users’ Private Data - NYTimes.com

Web Start-Ups Making Deals for Users’ Private Data - NYTimes.com: "Web Start-Ups Offer Bargains for Users’ Data
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
Published: May 30, 2010

* Sign in to Recommend
* Twitter
* Sign In to E-Mail
* Print
*
Reprints
* ShareClose
o Linkedin
o Digg
o Facebook
o Mixx
o MySpace
o Yahoo! Buzz
o Permalink
o

As concern increases in Washington about the amount of private data online, and as big sites like Facebook draw criticism that they collect consumers’ information in a stealthy manner, many Web start-ups are pursuing a more reciprocal approach — saying, in essence: give us your data and get something in return.
Enlarge This Image
Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Aaron Patzer, Mint’s founder, in 2008. He said his idea was simple: “We would data-mine your own data in order to help you.”
Related

*
Sam’s Club Personalizes Discounts for Buyers (May 31, 2010)
*
Times Topic: Privacy

Enlarge This Image

WeShop.com, still in development, has built a system that allows people to spread information about their shopping habits.

The budgeting Web site Mint.com, for example, displays discount offers from cable companies or banks to users who reveal their personal financial data, including bank and credit card information. The clothing retailer Bluefly could send offers for sunglasses to consumers who disclose that they just bought a swimsuit. And location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla ask users to volunteer their location in return for rewards like discounts on Pepsi drinks or Starbucks coffee.

These early efforts are predicated on a shift in the relationship between consumer and company. Influenced by consumers’ willingness to trade data online, the sites are pushing to see how much information people will turn over.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Gulf Oil Spill: Massive Underwater Plumes Spell Disaster, Scientists Say

Gulf Oil Spill: Massive Underwater Plumes Spell Disaster, Scientists Say: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Your request is being processed...

digg

facebook Twitter stumble reddit del.ico.us