Thermal signature intensity alarmer

• US 20040183679A1
• Filed: 03/17/2003
• Published: 09/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Innovative Engineering & Consulting Corporation
• Original Assignee: Innovative Engineering & Consulting Corporation
• Inventors: Pettegrew, Richard, Paximadis, John Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 6,900,729 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/567
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19 using infrared-radiation detection systems G08B13/194 takes precedence

Abstract

A system for processing thermal signature data is provided. The system provides a thermal signature data processor that analyzes one or more pixels to determine whether an aspect of an alarm-worthy event has occurred. In one example, the system additionally

analyzes visual data in relation to the thermal signature data to determine whether an alarm-worthy event (e.g., intrusion) has occurred. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the application. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a thermal signature processing logic that analyzes a thermal image data to identify an object of interest by a thermal signature;

an intensity logic that determines the relative thermal intensity of the object of interest; and

an alarm logic that determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred based on one or more of the thermal signature processing logic analysis of the thermal image data and the intensity logic analysis of the relative thermal intensity of the object of interest.

2. The system of claim 1, where the alarm logic determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred based on one or more values produced by the thermal signature processing logic or the intensity logic where the one or more values are produced by processing the value of an individual pixel or a set of pixels.

3. The system of claim 1, where the alarm logic determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred based on one or more values produced by the thermal signature processing logic or the intensity logic where the one or more values are produced by processing the effect an individual pixel or set of pixels has on an average value for a region of interest.

4. A computer readable medium storing computer executable components of the system of claim 1.

5. A system, comprising:

a thermal signature processing logic that analyzes a thermal image data to identify an object of interest by a thermal signature;

a motion logic that determines whether an object of interest moved; and

an alarm logic that determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred based on one or more of, the thermal signature processing logic analysis of the thermal image data and the motion logic analysis of the motion of the object of interest.

6. The system of claim 5, where the alarm logic determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred based on one or more values produced by the thermal signature processing logic or the motion logic where the one or more values are produced by processing the value of an individual pixel or a set of pixels.

7. The system of claim 5, where the alarm logic determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred based on one or more values produced by the thermal signature processing logic or the motion logic where the one or more values are produced by processing the effect an individual pixel or set of pixels has on an average value for a region of interest.

8. A computer readable medium storing computer executable components of the system of claim 5.

9. A system, comprising:

a thermal signature processing logic that analyzes a thermal image data to identify an object of interest by a thermal signature;

a motion logic that determines whether an object of interest moved;

an intensity logic that determines the relative thermal intensity of the object of interest; and

an alarm logic that determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred based on one or more of, the thermal signature processing logic analysis of the thermal image data, the motion logic analysis of the motion of the object of interest, and the intensity logic analysis of the relative thermal intensity of the object of interest.

10. The system of claim 9, where the alarm logic determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred based on one or more values produced by the thermal signature processing logic, the motion logic, or the intensity logic where the values are produced by processing the value of an individual pixel or a set of pixels.

11. The system of claim 9, where the alarm logic determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred based on one or more values produced by the thermal signature processing logic, the motion logic, or the intensity logic where the values are produced by processing the effect an individual pixel or set of pixels has on an average value for a region of interest.

12. A computer readable medium storing computer executable components of the system of claim 9.

13. A system, comprising:

a visual processing logic that analyzes a visual image data;

a thermal signature processing logic that analyzes a thermal image data;

a combination logic that analyzes a combination of the visual image data and the thermal image data or that determines a relation between them; and

an alarm logic for determining whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred based on one or more of the visual processing logic analysis of the visual image data, the thermal signature processing logic analysis of the thermal image data, and the combination logic analysis of the combination of the visual image data and the thermal image data or the relation between the visual image data and the thermal image data.

14. The system of claim 13, comprising a frame capturer that captures between 10 and 60 frames per second.

15. The system of claim 14, where the frame capturer is one of a PCI frame grabber and a USB frame grabber.

16. The system of claim 13, where the visual image data is taken from a single frame.

17. The system of claim 13, where the visual image data is taken from two or more frames.

18. The system of claim 15, where the PCI frame grabber samples data at a resolution of between 128×

128 pixels and 1024×

1024.

19. The system of claim 15, where the PCI frame grabber samples data with a color depth of between 4 and 16 bits per pixel.

20. The system of claim 13, where the visual processing logic includes a visual image data transforming logic.

21. The system of claim 20, where the visual image data transforming logic performs one or more of, blurring, sharpening, and filtering of the visual image data.

22. The system of claim 13, where the alarm logic determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred by evaluating the value of one or more pixels in the visual image data or the thermal image data on an individual basis.

23. The system of claim 13, where the alarm logic determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred by evaluating values of a set of pixels in the visual image data or the thermal image data on an averaged basis.

24. The system of claim 13, where the alarm logic determines whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred by comparing a motsig data to a pre-determined, configurable range for the motsig data.

25. A computer readable medium storing computer executable components of the system of claim 13.

26. A method, comprising:

acquiring a thermal image data;

analyzing the thermal image data to identify a thermal signature intensity for an object of interest in a region of interest;

determining whether an alarm signal should be generated based on the thermal signature intensity of the object of interest; and

selectively generating an alarm signal.

27. A method, comprising:

acquiring a thermal image data;

analyzing the thermal image data to identify a motion for an object of interest in a region of interest;

determining whether an alarm signal should be generated based on the motion of the object of interest; and

selectively generating an alarm signal.

28. A method, comprising:

acquiring a thermal image data;

analyzing the thermal image data to identify a thermal signature intensity for an object of interest in a region of interest;

analyzing the thermal image data to identify a motion for the object of interest in a region of interest;

determining whether an alarm signal should be generated based on the motion of the object of interest or the thermal signature intensity of the object of interest; and

selectively generating an alarm signal.

29. A method, comprising:

acquiring a visual image data;

acquiring a thermal image data;

analyzing the visual image data and the thermal image data to determine whether an alarm-worthy event has occurred; and

selectively generating an alarm signal based on the analyzing of the visual image data and the analyzing of the thermal image data.

30. The method of claim 29, where the visual image data is acquired from a frame grabber.

31. The method of claim 29, where the thermal image data is acquired from an infrared apparatus.

32. The method of claim 29, comprising:

transforming the visual image data by one or more of blurring, sharpening, and filtering.

33. The method of claim 29, where an alarm signal is generated based on the value of a single pixel.

34. The method of claim 29, where an alarm signal is generated based on the average value of a set of two or more pixels.

35. The method of claim 29, where an alarm signal is generated based on data from a single frame.

36. The method of claim 29, where an alarm signal is generated based on data from a set of two or more frames.

37. A computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions operable to perform computer executable aspects of the method of claim 29.

38. A method, comprising:

acquiring a thermal image data;

analyzing the thermal image data to identify a thermal signature intensity for an object of interest in a region of interest;

acquiring a visual image data;

generating a presentation of the visual image data where the presentation includes enhancing one or more objects whose thermal signature intensity is within a pre-determined, configurable range.

39. A computerized method, comprising:

acquiring a thermal image data;

analyzing the thermal image data to identify a thermal signature for an object of interest in a region of interest;

accessing a data store of thermal signatures; and

generating a target identification based on comparing the identified thermal signature to one or more thermal signatures in the data store.

40. The method of claim 39, comprising:

acquiring a visual image data;

analyzing the visual image data in light of the target identification to refine the target identification.

41. The method of claim 40, comprising:

selectively generating an alarm signal based on the target identification.

42. A method, comprising:

acquiring a thermal image data from a thermal image data device;

analyzing the thermal image data to identify a thermal signature for an object of interest in a region of interest; and

selectively controlling the thermal image data device to track the object of interest based on the thermal signature.

43. The method of claim 42, comprising:

automatically focusing the thermal image data device based on the thermal signature for the object of interest.

44. The method of claim 43, where automatically focusing the thermal image data device comprises maximizing a gradient between the object of interest and a background.

45. A method, comprising:

acquiring a thermal image data;

analyzing the thermal image data to identify a thermal signature intensity for an object of interest in a region of interest;

acquiring a visual image data;

analyzing the visual image data to facilitate characterizing the object of interest; and

acquiring one or more external sensor data that further facilitate characterizing the object of interest.

46. The method of claim 45, where characterizing an object of interest comprises one or more of, identifying a location of the object, identifying a size of the object, identifying the presence of the object, identifying the path of the object, and identifying the likelihood that the object is an intruder for which an alarm signal should be generated.

47. A system for detecting an intrusion of an object of interest into a region of interest, comprising:

means for acquiring a thermal image of the region of interest;

means for analyzing the thermal image to identify a thermal intensity signal of an object of interest; and

means for generating an alarm signal based on the analysis of the thermal image.

48. A system for detecting an intrusion of an object of interest into a region of interest, comprising:

means for acquiring a visual image of the region of interest;

means for acquiring a thermal image of the region of interest;

means for analyzing the visual image in relation to the thermal image; and

means for generating an alarm signal based on the analysis of the visual image in relation to the thermal image.

49. A set of application programming interfaces embodied on a computer readable medium for execution by a computer component in conjunction with intrusion detection, comprising:

a first interface for communicating thermal image data; and

a second interface for communicating alarm data, where the alarm data is computed based on analyzing the thermal image data.

50. In a computer system having a graphical user interface comprising a display and a selection device, a method of providing and selecting from a set of data entries on the display, the method comprising:

retrieving a set of data entries, each of the data entries representing one of an action associated with detecting an intrusion by analyzing thermal image data;

displaying the set of entries on the display;

receiving a data entry selection signal indicative of the selection device selecting a selected data entry; and

in response to the data entry selection signal, initiating an operation associated with the selected data entry.

51. A computer data signal embodied in a transmission medium, comprising:

a first set of instructions for processing thermal image data; and

a second set of instructions for determining that an intrusion by an object of interest into a region of interest has occurred based on processing of the thermal image data.

52. A data packet for transmitting intrusion data, comprising:

a first field that stores visual image data; and

a second field that stores alarm data computed from analyzing the thermal image data.