PS - an update from 14th May, 2022:
a film maker with a strong interest in consciousness has taken this further by using multiple instruments (including forward looking infra-red, or FLIR) to create a documentary. An interview on this here (some of the links weren't working when I accessed that site, but others were).
Note: I haven't viewed the film yet, only the interview.
There is an increasing amount of film of UFOs in recent decades (e.g., here, MUFON, regular reportedly successful CE-5 events such as these, etc). Why is it no-one has thought to combine features related purely to this function into a thicker mobile phone?
Lenses are improved, so how about something with as much as is possible of the following wish list:
- a extendable (telescopic?) leg in the phone so it can be propped (against a wall or post is fine - doesn't have to be the ground), to give a steadier image (there is editing software to create a steady image used by some sailing channels, but that would be an interference with the raw data);
- recording of time, location, height, compass heading and azimuth bearing - preferably in such a way that output could be combined with that of other similar cameras in the area to triangulate location and enable accurate estimation of size (this is an extension of GPS functions, but I was able to get something like this on an old 2G phone, so it should be feasible);
- three lenses: one permanently on wide angle, the normal main one, and one permanently on tight focus (so we don't have the problem of losing context when the filmer zooms in, or losing detail when the filmer zooms out to get context and - sadly far too rarely - some context to enable a judgment of scale), and possibly with angles of view marked on the displays to help with the analysis;
- a recording for infrared (IR) (I note we're getting blood oxygen levels, so there is quite a range of instrumentation, it would seem, and some of the the IR cameras I've seen in the past have been quite small - but it may mean a "device" that is more than three sheets of paper thick . . . ) and one for ultraviolet (UV) (based on the main visual camera, perhaps, as I don't think there would be enough space to have the three foci for each of those);
- three microphones recording directional input only from the direction of camera (they may have to project out and be muffled to keep out ambient sound) - one for audible frequencies, one for below audible (infrasound (IS) ) and one for above audible (ultrasonic (US) ).
So, something with three visual lenses, one IR (three in my ideal dream world) lens, and one UV (three in my ideal dream world) lens, three directional microphones (audible, IS and US), extendable (telescopic) prop, and some fancy software.
It won't be cheap (the price of many mobile phones is reduced by the large numbers), but some enthusiasts would probably be able and willing to pay the price (although not having all the other apps might reduce the price), and we would have a chance to start getting sets of multiple quantitative data. I'm aware that:
(a) there is a powerful argument that much of the value of this is spiritual, but that doesn't help many sceptics, whereas physical data is more likely to be convincing, and thus open such people up to the spiritual possibilities;
(b) UFOs (or as the military has relabelled them [to try, IMO, to exclude as many ordinary people as possible]: UAPs) may not be physical phenomena (I'm reading a book on one option now - and it is . . . weird) - but the range of choices (particularly IR) would help examine some of those possibilities.
When I first started thinking of this, I was also thinking of range finders, electronic/magnetic field disturbance indicators, etc, but:
(i) multiple units would enable determination of location (some of the investigations by news outlets of multiple camera angles during protests hinted at what could be done);
(ii) indication of electromagnetic disturbance could be useful, but I doubt filming something at a distance is going to have a detectable influence at the camera, so it is one item I consider could stay on the wishlist.
As I stated, we're now routinely getting indications of UFOs at regular events: the possibility of using something like this for advantage is, these days, real.
Incidentally, one of the released pre-digital era CIA files labelled "how to photograph a UFO" talked of walking around 60 feet to take a second photo so assessment of size could be undertaken. This idea is not new.
