Smartphone app released for data capture

Panasonic Automotive and Industrial Systems Europe have announced the Grid-EYE App for iOS, which enables capturing data from the Grid-EYE evaluation kit via the Bluetooth smart module PAN1740 on to a smartphone. The data from the Grid-EYE evaluation kit (integrating a Grid-EYE sensor, a nanopower PAN1740 Bluetooth Smart module and a microcontroller) consists of 64 pixels temperature values which correspond to the 8×8 pixels of the Grid-EYE sensor.

The 64 pixel IR camera in a surface mount package measures only 11.6x8x4.3mm and detects absolute surface temperature without any contact. The PAN 1740 Bluetooth module only draws 4.9mA in transmit or receive operating modes, which means it can be powered by coin cell batteries. An Android App is currently being developed.

The Grid-EYE App benefits from several exciting features:

• ‘temperature color’ adjustment: the user can change the color settings to make maximum use of the App in different environments. For example if the ‘Minimum Temperature Color’ is set to 25°C then the display color of the pixel on the smartphone screen below this temperature value will be blue. In the same way, if the ‘Maximum Temperature Color’ is set to 30°C, then the display color of the pixel on the smartphone screen above this temperature value will be red. In between 25 and 30°C the color of pixels will be varied between blue and red based on the color spectrum.
• interpolation: this feature will show a rough thermal image of the object being projected in front of the Grid-EYE sensor. This is done by simply taking the 64 pixels temperature data and applying the interpolation function to display the thermal image on the smartphone.
• camera: when the camera is switched on, the results of the 64 pixels of the Grid-eye sensor are overlayed by the camera. This means if the camera and the sensor both are aligned very close together and focused on an object, the thermal image formed by the pixels should be roughly equivalent to the outline of the same object seen in the camera.
• grid transparency: this feature can be used to adjust the transparency of the screen for the pixel colors and is needed especially when using with the camera overlay.
• camera grid ratio: This feature adjusts the size ratio between the sensor grid and the camera image (in case the camera is active). The camera zoom is changed accordingly.

Mubeen Abbas, Product Marketing Manager Sensors at Panasonic remarks: “Our new Grid-EYE App makes it much easier, better and exciting for design-engineers to prototype their new applications.”