As with the original PyGamer Thermal Camera, this portable thermal camera project combines an AMG8833 IR Thermal Camera FeatherWing with a PyGamer. The upgraded CircuitPython code used in this version increases the camera resolution from 64 pixels (8 x 8) to 225 pixels (15 x 15) and deepens the color depth from 8 colors to 100 colors, all without hardware modifications.

The new code improves the camera's ability to visualize thermal images to help discern heating and air conditioning ventilation issues, to evaluate the quality of your home's insulation, and to avoid the sleeping cat when heading to the kitchen in the middle of the night. 

Increasing the display's resolution required changes to the original camera's code to maintain a useful image frame display rate. As a result, performance monitoring was built-in to the new CircuitPython code as a series of time markers with a summary performance report printed to the serial port at the end of each frame update. See the section on Performance Monitoring for more information.

Thermal Camera Features

The camera's thermal image can be frozen or focused at the touch of a button. The focus feature fine-tunes the display's temperature range to match the current image's maximum and maximum measurements, improving the detail of the image. To get a statistical view of an object's heat, switch to histogram mode. A settable alarm flashes lights and beeps when the camera sees a temperature at or above the threshold. The setup function is used to set the temperature display range and the alarm threshold. An editable configuration file contains the camera's power-up settings for the default temperature range and camera sensor direction.

The camera's thermal imaging sensor is an 8 by 8 thermopile array that reads temperatures from 32°F to 176°F (0°C to 80°C) with an absolute accuracy of +- 4.5°F (2.5°C) and resolution of 0.9°F (0.5°C). To improve object recognition, the camera software algorithmically enlarges the number of imaged elements from 64 to 225 by calculating the in-between values using a technique called bilinear interpolation. See the guide section 1-2-3s of Bilinear Interpolation for more detail about the technique.

Temperatures are represented in the displayed image as colors in a spectrum, ranging from a cold blue to white-hot. The color spectrum is based on a frequently-used palette similar to the range of colors seen when an iron bar is heated -- a technique a blacksmith might use to gauge the malleability of metal.

The camera's numeric temperature values are displayed as degrees Fahrenheit. Converting the values to Celsius is possible but is left as an exercise.

The PyGamer Thermal Camera's custom cover skin was produced by a commercial on-line sticker printing service using the image file below.

Parts

Other than the AMG8833 Thermal Camera FeatherWing, the following kit contains the PyGamer parts for this project including a nifty carrying case.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Adam McCombs for the highly detailed optical and electron microscope photographs of the de-capped AMG8833 sensor. It's fascinating to see how it operates under the covers.

Special thanks to David Glaude and Zoltán Vörös for the ulab-based bilinear interpolation helper. Array calculations using CircuitPython's integral ulab (micro lab) library are amazingly fast and efficient!

For more information about ulab, check out Jeff Epler's ulab: Crunch Numbers Fast in CircuitPython learning guide.