Facilitating analysis and interpretation of associated visible light and infrared (IR) image information

• US 10,044,946 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2014
• Issued: 08/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Flir Systems AB (Teledyne Technologies Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Flir Systems AB (Teledyne Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Strandemar, Katrin, Roth, Bjorn, Ahlstrom, Mats
• Primary Examiner(s): Rao, Andy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jiang, Zaihan
• Application Number:
  US14/503,332
• Publication Number:
  US 20150109454A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,407 Days
• Field of Search: 348164
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10048 Infrared image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20221 Image fusion; Image merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/11 for generating image signals from visible and infrared light wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2628 Alteration of picture size, shape, position or orientation, e.g. zooming, rotation, rolling, perspective, translation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/272 Means for inserting a foreground image in a background image, i.e. inlay, outlay

Abstract

There is provided for an embodiment a method for enabling improved analysis and interpretation of associated image data in an infrared (IR) image and a visible light (VL) image depicting a real world scene, captured using a thermography arrangement comprising an IR imaging system and a VL imaging system, the method comprising: capturing an IR image depicting the scene, having a first field of view (FOV); capturing a VL image depicting the scene, having a second FOV; processing at least one of the VL image and the IR image such that the FOV represented in the VL image substantially corresponds to the FOV represented in the IR image; associating the resulting IR and VL images to provide associated images; and enabling a user to access the associated images for display, wherein analysis and interpretation of the associated images, having image pair content, is intuitive as the resulting VL image and the resulting IR image after associating represent the same FOV.

Claims

1. A method for enabling improved analysis and interpretation of associated infrared (IR) and visible light (VL) image data in an IR image and a VL image depicting a same scene, said IR image and VL image being captured using a thermography arrangement comprising an IR imaging system and a VL imaging system, the method comprising:

capturing an IR image depicting the scene using the IR imaging system, having a first field of view;

capturing a visible light image depicting the scene using the visible light imaging system, having a second field of view different from the first field of view;

in response to activation of a field of view (FOV) follow control, wherein the FOV follow control is selectable by a user to activate or deactivate a FOV follow function for the IR and VL images, processing at least one of the VL image and the IR image, wherein the processing comprises a selection of cropping, windowing, zooming, shifting, and/or rotation such that the field of view represented in the VL image substantially corresponds to the field of view represented in the IR image, thereby generating a resulting IR image and a resulting VL image with the same field of view;

storing in memory the resulting IR image and the resulting VL image as associated images with the same field of view; and

enabling a user to access the associated images for display of a representation of said associated images, wherein the enabling comprises retrieving the associated images with the same field of view from the memory at a later time and displaying the associated images.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the enabling the user to access the associated images for display further comprises enabling display of a combined image dependent on the associated images, and wherein the displaying the associated images comprises displaying on a display integrated in or coupled to the thermography arrangement.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

aligning the IR image and the VL image;

determining that a VL image resolution value and an IR image resolution value are substantially the same; and

combining the IR image and the VL image to obtain the combined image.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the enabling the user to access the associated images for display further comprises:

deactivating the FOV follow function to display a full FOV of the visual image to allow the user to put an interested part of the scene in context with the full FOV.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the processing further comprises determining a resolution value of the IR imaging system and a resolution value of VL imaging system, wherein the resolution value of the IR imaging system corresponds to the resolution of the captured IR image and the resolution value of VL imaging system corresponds to the resolution of the captured VL image.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the processing further comprises determining that a VL image resolution value and an IR image resolution value are substantially the same and determining the same field of view between the VL image and the IR image based on one or more of an outline of a predetermined feature, a laser projection, center portions of the VL and IR images, and/or a user indication.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the processing further comprises processing the VL image by extracting high spatial frequency content of the VL image.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the processing further comprises processing the IR image to reduce noise in and/or blur the IR image.

9. A method according to claim 3, further comprising adding high resolution noise to the combined image.

10. A method according to claim 7, wherein the processing further comprises combining the extracted high spatial frequency content of the captured VL image and the IR image to a combined image.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the capturing of the IR image and the capturing of the VL image are performed simultaneously or in close succession, and wherein the VL image and the IR image with the same field of view are generated when the FOV follow function is activated by a user.

12. A thermography arrangement for enabling improved analysis and interpretation of associated infrared (IR) and visible light (VL) image data in an IR image and a VL image depicting a same scene, said arrangement comprising:

an IR imaging system configured to capture the IR image of the scene according to a first field of view;

a VL imaging system configured to capture the VL image of the scene according to a second field of view different from the first field of view;

a display;

a memory; and

a processor configured to;

process, in response to activation of a field of view (FOV) follow control, wherein the FOV follow control is selectable by a user to activate or deactivate a FOV follow function for the IR and VL images, at least one of the VL image and the IR image, wherein processing comprises a selection of cropping, windowing, zooming, shifting, and/or rotation such that the field of view represented in the VL image substantially corresponds to the field of view represented in the IR image, thereby generating a resulting IR image and a resulting VL image with the same field of view,

store in the memory the resulting IR image and the resulting VL image as associated images with the same field of view, and

enable a user to access at a later time the associated images stored in the memory for display of a representation of said associated images, wherein the enabling comprises displaying the associated images on the display.

13. The thermography arrangement of claim 12, wherein the display is further configured to display the associated IR and VL images adjacent to each other, and wherein said display is integrated in or coupled to the thermography arrangement.

14. The thermography arrangement of claim 12, further comprising an interface configured to enable a user to access and/or display the associated IR and VL images.

15. The thermography arrangement of claim 12, wherein the display is configured to display the associated images to the user for further analysis and interpretation.

16. The thermography arrangement of claim 12, wherein the memory is a volatile memory that is:

integrated in the thermography arrangement;

or

coupled to the thermography arrangement.

17. The thermography arrangement of claim 12, wherein the memory is a non-volatile memory that is:

integrated in the thermography arrangement;

coupled to the thermography arrangement;

or

integrated in an external unit configured to receive data from, and/or transfer data to, the thermography arrangement.

18. The thermography arrangement of claim 12, wherein said processor is further configured to perform scaling of the at least one processed image such that the size of the images becomes the same.

19. The thermography arrangement of claim 12, wherein said processor is further configured to perform resampling the VL image and/or IR image processed such that the resolution of the VL and IR images becomes the same.

20. A computer-readable medium on which is stored non-transitory information configured to control a processor to perform a method for enabling improved analysis and interpretation of associated infrared (IR) and visible light (VL) image data in an IR image and a VL image depicting a same scene, said IR image and VL image being captured using a thermography arrangement comprising an IR imaging system and a VL imaging system, the method comprising:

capturing an IR image depicting the scene using the IR imaging system, having a first field of view;

capturing a visible light image depicting the scene using the visible light imaging system, having a second field of view different from the first field of view;

in response to activation of a field of view (FOV) follow control, wherein the FOV follow control is selectable by a user to activate or deactivate a FOV follow function for the IR and VL images, processing at least one of the VL image and the IR image, wherein the processing comprises a selection of cropping, windowing, zooming, shifting, and/or rotation such that the field of view represented in the VL image substantially corresponds to the field of view represented in the IR image, thereby generating a resulting IR image and a resulting VL image with the same field of view;

storing in memory the resulting IR image and the resulting VL image as associated images with the same field of view; and

enabling a user to access the associated images for display of a representation of said associated images, wherein the enabling comprises retrieving the associated images with the same field of view from the memory at a later time and displaying the associated images on a display, wherein the display is integrated in or coupled to the thermography arrangement.