Seeed Studio Builds an Ultra-Low-Cost Live-View Thermal Camera Using a Wio Terminal and IR Sensor

Seeed Studio has published a guide to turn its SAM D51-based Wio Terminal into an ultra-low-cost live-view thermal camera — coming in at under $80 for all parts.

Thermal cameras are incredibly useful devices. From finding cold spots in houses and hot spots in electronics to helping to quickly scan a crowd for potential infection, there are innumerable uses for a thermal camera - but, sadly, most are priced outside the impulse point for the hobbyist.

Using its Wio Terminal, launched last month, Seeed Studio has put together a thermal camera that's pocket friendly in more ways than one — building on the work of Kris Kasprzak on using ultra-low-cost temperature sensor arrays. "Several modifications were made to make it compatible with Wio Terminal and Grove Infrared Temperature Sensor Array (AMG8833)," Seeed writes.

"Most graphics are now first drawn to TFT LCD sprites first to improve overall performance and faster frame rate. We also added a cross-hair in the middle of the screen and showing the temperature at the cross hair."

Like its more expensive brethren, the Wio Terminal thermal camera display a live colour-coded view of the world — but presented in terms of infrared emissions, rather than visible light. The view is updated live as the battery-powered camera is moved around, and a center spot measurement is read out in numbers.

The key to the project's low cost is the equally low resolution of the thermal sensor: Where entry-level thermal cameras tend to start around to 80x60 resolution mark, the AMG8833 sensor in Seeed's build offers just an 8x8 resolution — 64 measurement points total. For a more easy-to-view image, Kasprzak's code then interpolates the missing points to create an image equivalent to a 70x70 resolution - turning what would be a very blocky thermal image into something considerably smoother.

The full build guide, parts list, and code can be found on the Seeed Studio blog.