TELEDYNE FLIR Boson with Shutter 320 Thermal Resolution, Narrow Lens, 12° FOV, 18mm EFL - Slow Frame Rate Consumer Grade

ICI Infrared Cameras does not offer enclosure accessories for select Boson 320 and Boson 640 thermal Imagers at this time. Please refer to our Homepage for select options 

The FLIR Boson product is considered a camera core.
It is intended for integration into ICI Infrared Cameras and is not designed as a complete product ready for immediate use

FAQ: 

The table below shows sensitivity as a function of configuration, normalized to f/1.0. The specified requirements are when operating in the high-gain state at 20C, with the averager disabled, in free-running mode, imaging a 30C background. (NEDT values with averager enabled are approximately 20% lower than shown in the table.)

For the 320 configuration, NEDT requirements in low-gain state are 250% of the values shown in Table. (Only industrial and professional-grade configurations provide a low-gain state.)

For the 640 configuration, NEDT requirements in low-gain state 300% of the values shown in the table.

TEMPORAL NEDT IN HIGH-GAIN STATE

TEMPORAL NEDT IN HIGH-GAIN STATE

NEDT values shown are acceptance-test limits representing the lensless configuration with an f/1.0 aperture installed. With a lens installed, test limits are scaled by (f/#)2 / τ

The FLIR Boson requires at least one interface board to allow Power and acquire Video from its high-density connector. 

The most popular board in our product list is the Boson VPC Kit w/ Cables. It allows for power input, streaming USB and composite analog video as well as controlling the camera's settings.

A complete list of accessories are available at: https://buy.infraredcameras.com/collections/accessories-components

To choose the proper FOV and resolution we recommend the Field of View tool here: FOV Tool

For video acquisition and control you will need to use the Boson Controller GUI 3.0 available from Teledyne FLIR. 

With  the RHP Boson interface boards, you may also use the RHP Boson GUI. 

There are three variables that need to be known in order to determine the most appropriate lens for an application:

1. The distance from the camera to the object being imaged. This is usually expressed in feet or meters.

2. The size of the object being imaged. This is usually the largest dimension, also in feet or meters, as long as the same units are used.

3. The number of pixels that the object needs to cover in the image, usually using the larger of the horizontal or vertical dimension.Using these variables, it is possible to calculate the optimal lens, since the sensor resolutions and pixels sizes of Boson or Tau2 cameras are known values.

Note that these calculations become less accurate at very close ranges, or for very wide field of view lenses. 

All Boson thermal camera modules feature FLIR infrared video processing architecture, noise reduction filters, and local-area contrast, utilizing a high sensitivity 12-micron pixel pitch detector that provides high-resolution thermal imaging in a small, lightweight, and low-power package. The image processing capabilities accommodate industry-standard communication interfaces, including visible CMOS and USB.

Boson Radiometric cameras bring absolute temperature measurement capabilities for quantitative assessment and analysis across commercial and industrial uses. The Boson Radiometric models feature radiometric temperature measurement, meaning the cameras capture the temperature data of every pixel in every frame of a scene. This makes them ideal for implementation with unmanned aerial systems, firefighting, automotive, security, surveillance, and industrial inspection. 

Configurations of Boson which are radiometric capable feature the ability to output a “temperature stable” output or a “temperature linear” output. In the former case, the 16b output is intended to be linear with input flux (i.e. target irradiance) and independent of the camera’s own temperature. In the latter case, the input flux is translated to absolute temperature (Kelvin). That is, the output is linear with scene temperature. For temp-linear output, parameters such as target emissivity atmospheric transmission can be adjusted to reflect current imaging conditions.

Standard Boson or Radiometric Bosons

Radiometry Disabled (T-linear Enable/Disable has no effect on output): 16b output varies with both scene flux and camera temperature.

Radiometric Bosons

Radiometry Enabled, T-linear Disabled:
Temperature-stable output: 16b output value is intended to be proportional to scene-flux only and independent of the camera temperature. That is, when imaging a given scene, the output image is stable even if the camera’s temperature varies. By comparison, output varies significantly with camera temperature when radiometry is disabled.

Radiometry Enabled, T-linear Enabled:
Temperature-linear output: 16b output value is intended to be directly proportional to scene temperature. In high-gain state, the 16b output value corresponds to scene-temperature in Kelvin multiplied by 100, and in low-gain state, it corresponds to Kelvin multiplied by 50. For example, expected output in high-gain state when imaging a 20C BB is [(20C + 273.15)] * 100 = 29315. In practice, radiometric error prevents an output which corresponds perfectly with scene temperature. 

Radiometric accuracy provides ±5 °C (±8 °F) or ±5% temperature measurement accuracy and include a Spot Meter Accuracy software feature that provides an assessment of how accurate a given temperature measurement appears in the scene.

Some of the benefits of advanced radiometric cameras include:

• Improved accuracy (typical performance on the order of +5 Co or 5% in high-gain state, varying slightly across the full operating temperature range)
  
• Moveable and resizable spot-meter (coordinates can be user-selectable to any location on the array)
• Additional spot-meter data (average, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum value)
• Digital data linear in scene temperature (in real-time operation, the pixel values in the digital data correspond to the temperature of the scene)
• Detailed temperature information (users derive temperature information per pixel from objects in the scene)
• Temperature precision (allows external scene parameters to be compensated for emissivity– a measure of the efficiency of a surface to emit thermal energy relative to a perfect blackbody source– and window transmission, to more accurately determine temperature)
• Image Metric Feature (enables users to query the camera for scene temperature data via serial command, such as maximum, minimum, and standard deviation for user-defined regions).

For the majority of applications, a shuttered version of a Boson camera is the best option. 

All uncooled microbolometer-based cameras drift with temperature changes, and for optimum image quality the pixels occasionally need to be re-normalized. This process is called a Flat Field Correction, or FFC. The parameters for FFC are time and temperature change.

The shuttered versions of all FLIR Boson cameras perform this operation automatically, however the user has some control over the frequency of FFC by way of setting the amount of time between shuttering, and/or the amount that the ambient temperature can change before shuttering. 

In certain situations where the scene or the system is always moving, a non-shuttered version can be used, as FLIR's Boson cameras employ sophisticated software that will compensate for this drift. However, an initial FFC should be performed using a uniform object or source in front of the lens (even a hand in front of the lens will work). 

Without details of the intended end-use of the camera or system, FLIR's guidance is to specify a shuttered version of all Boson cameras.