Jeff Kaufman's Writing

Playing with an Infrared Camera

2026-02-06 · 13:00 UTC ·2 min read

Brief

Jeff Kaufman's Thermal Master P1 infrared camera attachment produced vivid thermal images—showing IR-opaque glasses, facial temperature differences, hair gaps, heat fingerprints on a windowsill, a warm stand mixer, and building heat loss. He photographed a nearby house where basement heat leaks reveal framing, plans a ~4°F inspection to map studs/heat loss, and wants to combine rapid frames or video with modern image-processing for improved quality.

Why it matters

Jeff Kaufman (published 2026-02-06) tested a Thermal Master P1 infrared phone camera attachment and captured clear thermal contrasts: IR-opaque glasses, warmer cheeks/noses vs cooler foreheads, and distinct patterns in a 4-year-old child, a cat, and household objects.

Key details

  • He photographed heat fingerprints (window sill, bare vs socked foot), a warm stand mixer and recently-run car, and spotted a nearby house losing heat through its basement; he plans a 4°F morning test to map heat loss/studs and wants to apply multi-frame image-processing (video post-process) for higher-quality thermal images.
Source evidence

title: Playing with an Infrared Camera
contenttype: article
publication: Jeff Kaufman's Writing
published: 2026-02-06T13:00:00+00:00
sourceurl: https://www.jefftk.com/p/playing-with-an-infrared-camera

word_count: 390

I recently got a Thermal Master P1 infrared camera attachment for my phone. The goal was a house
project, but it's also a great toy, especially with the kids. Getting
a room pitch black but still being able to 'see' with the phone was
fun for a bit. The real fun, though, was in exploring to observe all
these thermal properties we'd never thought about. Here's my selfie: Light is warmer, dark is cooler. My glasses aren't cool, they're just
IR-opaque. I already knew cheeks and noses were squishier than
foreheads, but it's neat to see that in coloring. Here's my 4yo, outside in ~30F weather: The patterns are clearer, especially at the edge of the cheeks. Here's a different angle: The gaps in the hair are neat, and you can see the bow on her headband
clearly. Here's the cat: This all makes sense in hindsight, knowing that the face is less furry
and that there are shifting parts in the body fur, but it's neat to
see. The kids were excited about how this lets you see back into the past.
Here's heat-fingerprints on a window sill I touched: The print from one socked foot and one bare foot: A stand mixer that had been running: A car that had been sitting for a long time: One that was cold to the touch, but apparently had been run recently: Less fun but more usefully you can also see where buildings are losing
heat. I'm planing to take it out Sunday morning when it's ~4F here
and assess our house, but in the meantime here's a nearby house losing
heat through its basement: If I look very closely I can just make out the framing inside the
wall. I'll try this again when it's even colder, and if I'm lucky I
can get a bunch of pictures showing where the studs are throughout our
exterior walls. I do wish there were a way to connect the sensor to modern image
processing algorithms like my phone uses for its regular camera.
Combining the information from several shots in quick succession could
give much higher quality, and I feel my eye doing this automatically
when watching it live on the phone screen. I guess I could take a
video and then post-process? Comment via: facebook , lesswrong , mastodon , bluesky