Introducing the FLIR Boson™

FLIR today announced Boson™, its smallest, lightest, and least power-consuming, high-performance uncooled thermal camera for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that make products for firefighting, automotive, maritime, hunting, UAS, and the military. The Boson design allows for expanded computing capability on the camera and a dramatic reduction in price.

Smaller than the Tau® 2 core, FLIR’s other high-performance uncooled core, and double the size of the low-cost Lepton® core, Boson is the first thermal camera core to incorporate a sophisticated, low-power multi-core vision processor unit that helps make Boson the smartest thermal core on the planet.

Boson uses FLIR’s XIR™ expandable infrared video processing architecture to help OEMs take advantage of advanced image processing and video analytics while keeping power consumption low. Manufacturers of drones, cars, weapons sights and handheld imagers will now have the ability to process video onboard, and allow Boson to do things our previous cores could not::

1. - Military: Boson will allow our soldiers on the battlefield to use higher-performance thermal technology that is fit into smaller equipment and distributed more broadly because of the lower prices. It will enable soldiers both on the front lines and command centers to use video analytics to better identify combatant locations or areas for safe deployment.
2. - Drones: With a smaller design, the weight difference will help improve battery life and extend flight times. Boson will enable smaller drones with thermal imaging video capabilities that may have been available in only in the highest-end applications like those for military.
3. - Automotive: Thermal cameras today provide select luxury automakers a more accurate way to detect people and vehicles on the roadway. By connecting the video analytics built into Boson with a vehicle’s electronics system, cars will require fewer components for integration and more importantly, help improve safety for drivers on the road. With higher-performing capabilities at lower cost, Boson could help make thermal technology more accessible to more vehicles.
4. - Firefighting: Firefighters already use thermal imaging cameras, but Boson can enable firefighters to access better, smarter, and smaller thermal devices. The last thing a firefighter wants is another heavy tool. Boson can help control the display, control button functions, improve battery life and lead to a wave of smarter and smaller wearable devices for firefighters. With Boson, more firefighters will have access to higher-performing technology that can improve decision-making when seconds matter.
5. - Security:  Boson will enable smaller higher-performing security cameras to be deployed more broadly. When securing high-value areas like airports, stadiums and ports, more security is better. In security, video is data, and it’s impossible for humans to make real-time decisions based on the vast amount of video data. The video intelligence within Boson could help security teams pinpoint if someone is in an area of a stadium where they shouldn’t be, designate the heated object with a box on a video screen and alert security teams. 

We’re excited to launch Boson, our first new thermal camera core since Lepton in 2014. We look forward to the range of new products it will enable our OEM partners to develop.

For OEMs who want to consider Boson, it’s available for product development testing now.

To learn more about the technical details for Boson, visit www.flir.com/Boson.