Discussion on:

RIM patent: Smartphone camera to capture thermal images

What is amazing about this type of technology patent is this absurd belief that a "smart phone" is different from any other electronic device. The concept, application and numerous final devices of thermal infrared cameras have been around for years. Handheld devices with digital overlays (and photographic storage) are not new innovations. Firefighting, and ghostbuster type reality shows use them regularly. And the elephant in the room of software having no true mechanism invalidates most (ok, all really) patents by software companies. Unless RIM develops a new and novel DEVICE for the capture of the infrared data, this patent fails the prior art criteria and should not be granted.

No smartphone may be used to image a big foot or a ghost unless the air is green and the camera is out of focus.