Designers of consumer electronics gear, it seems, are constantly developing ways to shrink a product's size without sacrificing features or capabilities found in the bigger model it is meant to replace. The same is true in many industrial electronics categories. A recent case in point comes from Indigo Systems Corp. (Santa Barbara, CA).
In April, Indigo introduced what it calls the world's smallest and lightest infrared, thermal imaging camera, the Omega. In fact, the company initially planned to call the camera UL3, which stands for ultralow size, ultralow weight and ultralow power. The camera, priced in single unit quantities at $10,000, weighs 3.5 ounces, is less than 4 cubic inches in size and consumes less than 1.5 watts of power.