While incredibly cool, thermal imaging systems have remained out of the price range of most hackers. Even if you can afford to plunk down hundreds of dollars on one, taking one—or several—apart to see what’s inside would require an even larger budget. The PureThermal 1, while still not inexpensive at just under $300, is more budget friendly than most thermal cameras on the market.
What makes this camera unique, however, isn’t so much the cost, as that its build for hackability. It comes as a PCB without a plastic housing, meaning that electronics can be accessed without unscrewing or destroying anything. Even better, the camera’s reference firmware as well as its hardware schematic are open-source.
While it doesn’t have its own display, the camera is recognized by a computer as a webcam, thus setup, as seen in the video here is extremely easy. It works with Windows, Mac, and Linux out of the box, and would be a perfect fit for thermal computer vision experimentation. Or you can use the The GetThermal app, a cross-platform thermal image viewer, for more temperature information.
