Flir announces partnership with RealWear, a developer of AR wearables

30 Nov 2022

RealWear adds thermal camera to its Navigator range; and Ulefone debuts cellphone with Flip Lepton camera.

Teledyne Flir has announced a partnership with RealWear, Vancouver, WA, a developer of assisted reality wearable solutions, as its latest Thermal by Flir collaborator. The partners have launched what they call “the first fully hands-free, voice-controlled thermal camera module”.

In addition, Thermal by Flir partner Ulefone recently introduced its first mobile handset featuring Flir’s Lepton 3.5 thermal camera module, the Power Armor 18T 5G Android phone.

“Thermal by Flir is a cooperative product development and marketing program that supports OEMs to create innovative products based on Flir's thermal camera modules,” said Mike Walters, vice president, uncooled thermal imaging camera cores, Teledyne Flir. “This program enables our partners to get to market faster, lower development costs, and accelerate business growth.”

‘Industry-first wearable’

The thermal camera module for the RealWear Navigator 500 headset enables wearers to capture high-resolution visible and thermal images to quickly locate temperature anomalies in industrial equipment. Flir says this “marks the first commercially available system where the Lepton 3.5 thermal camera module is deployed as a wearable for assisted reality diagnostics.”

With the module mounted onto a device, the user only needs to say voice commands—even in high noise settings up to 100dBa—to change settings and modes and to capture thermal imagery.

“Empowering industrial frontline workers to capture thermal imaging data while being hands-free in hazardous environments gives workers a new superpower to complete tasks safely and productively,” said Rama Oruganti, chief product officer, RealWear. “Working through the Thermal by Flir program not only enabled us to create the system faster with lower cost, but it also drove significant market opportunity.”

The Ulefone Power Armor 18T Android phone marks the 13th mobile device to incorporate the Lepton micro thermal cameras. Flir claims that the integration of Lepton into mobile devices, other tech accessories, and wearables “has propelled the camera module to become the most widely adopted thermal imaging platform in history”.

Thermal by Flir begins with development support from the application engineering team to assist partner organizations in optimizing the performance of thermal camera systems. RealWear and Ulefone products leverage the Flir ecosystem, including using the patented MSX imaging capability, enhancing thermal imagery with embossed visible-light outlines, and compatibility with Flir software.

This subscription software offers the advanced processing features needed to manage thousands of thermal images and videos, whether from a handheld thermal imaging camera, unmanned aircraft system, acoustic imaging camera, or optical gas imaging camera.