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Interesting that they aren't using the built-in iPhone camera for the visual spectrum part, but are still using their own. (FLIR uses a visual spectrum camera to do edge detection, and then overlays that on the IR image to make it easier to see what is going on.)

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In addition to what fennecfoxen already stated, using their own visual sensor gives them control over the exact format of the data coming off the sensor, thus permitting them to use FPGA or ASIC based processing that would not be an option if they had to deal with image files coming off the iPhone's camera. It also allows them to collect extra data to help register the visual and IR images to each other.

This way the visible and IR cameras are right next to each other.

And they don't have to worry whether the two cameras are pointed in the same direction. And they don't have to worry about the pointing shifting over time.

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