The new Cat S60 smartphone

Wilsonville, Oregon: FLIR Systems has announced that Bullitt Group, manufacturer of ruggedised smartphones, will integrate its Lepton microcamera core in the new Cat S60 smartphone, creating purportedly the world’s first thermal imaging smartphone, and the latest consumer product to feature FLIR’s thermal imaging technology.

The Android-based smartphone, the company said, is part of the Cat Phones lineup of ruggedised handsets and reportedly has the world’s smallest, lightest, and lowest cost microbolometer-based thermal imaging camera, with the ability to see in total darkness and visualise heat that is invisible to the naked eye, allowing users to measure surface temperature from a distance, detect heat loss around doors and windows and spot moisture and missing insulation, making it the ideal smartphone for building professionals, electricians and first responders. The company added that the device also takes advantage of FLIR’s patented MSX technology, which embosses details from visible imagery on to thermal images, offering users more detailed and higher quality thermal imagery.

“We’re excited to partner with Bullitt to create the world’s first smartphone with integrated thermal imaging,” said Andy Teich, President and CEO of FLIR. “FLIR has pioneered significant reductions in size, weight, power, and cost of thermal cameras, and the Cat S60 represents yet another application for our technology and offers it to new groups of users.”

Echoing Teich’s sentiments, Peter Stephens, CEO Bullitt Group, global licensee for Caterpillar, said: “The Cat S60 represents a milestone for smartphones. We are excited for thermal technology to be in the hands of Cat phones’ customers and to discover the myriad of daily time and efficiency use cases it will present for them.”