Temperature sensor

• US 20050123182A1
• Filed: 12/01/2004
• Published: 06/09/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Avision, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Avision, Inc.
• Inventors: Wu, Yung-Chuan, Sheng, Thomas
• Application Number:
  US11/000,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20050123182A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2005/0077 Imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0022 for sensing the radiation of moving bodies
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0025 Living bodies ear thermometers G01J5/0011; detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00

Abstract

This invention provides a temperature sensor to sense a temperature profile of a target surfaces and to judge whether the high-temperature area, having a temperature higher than a predetermined temperature, of the target surface is a major area. The temperature sensor comprises an image capturing module, an image processing module, an image database and a comparison module. The image capturing module is used to measure the temperature profile of the target surface and capture a heat image of the target object. The image processing module is used to label the high-temperature area wherein the temperature is high than a predetermined temperature. The image database stores a plurality of images of the major areas. The comparison module compares an image of the high-temperature area with the image of the major area stored in an image database and decides whether the high-temperature area is the major area.

Claims

1. A temperature sensor for sensing a temperature profile of a target surface and judging whether a high-temperature area, having a temperature higher than a predetermined temperature, of the target surface is a major area, the temperature sensor comprising:

an image capturing module for measuring the temperature profile of the target surface and for capturing a heat image of the target surface;

an image processing module for filtering the heat image of the target surface according to the temperature profile and labelling the high-temperature area;

an image database for storing a plurality of images of the major areas; and

a comparison module for comparing an image of the high-temperature area with the image of the major area stored in the image database and deciding whether the high-temperature area is the major areas.

2. The temperature sensor of claim 1, wherein the comparison module evaluates the similarity between a pixel of the image of the high-temperature area and a pixel of the image of the concerned areas, and obtains a matching value for each pair of the pixels and a sum of the matching values, where the matching value is a quantitative measurement of the similarity between the two pixels.

3. The temperature sensor of claim 2, wherein the sum of the matching values exceeds a critical value, indicating the high-temperature area is the major area.

4. The temperature sensor of claim 1, further comprising an alarm module, connected to the comparison module, for sending out an alarm signaling that the high-temperature area is the major area.

5. The temperature sensor of claim 1, further comprising a display module for displaying an image of the high-temperature area.

6. The temperature sensor of claim 1, wherein the temperature profile of the target surface is detected with an infrared image sensing technology.

7. The temperature sensor of claim 1, wherein the temperature profile of the target surface is detected with a microwave image sensing technology.

8. The temperature sensor of claim 1, wherein the image processing module labels the high-temperature area with various colors.

9. The temperature sensor of claim 1, wherein the image processing module retains the image of the high-temperature area and discards the rest of the heat image of the target surface.

10. A temperature sensing method for sensing a temperature profile of a target surface and judging whether a high-temperature area, having a temperature higher than a predetermined temperature, of the target surface is a major area, the temperature sensing method comprising:

measuring the temperature profile of the target surface and capturing a heat image of the target surface;

filtering the heat image of the target surface according to the temperature profile and labelling the high-temperature area; and

comparing an image of the high-temperature area with an image of the concerned area stored in a image database and deciding whether the high-temperature area is the major area.

11. The temperature sensing method of claim 10, further comprising a step of:

sending out an alarm signaling that the high-temperature area is the major area.

12. The temperature sensing method of claim 10, further comprising a step of:

displaying an image of the high-temperature area.

13. The temperature sensing method of claim 10, further comprising a step of:

evaluating the similarity between a pixel of the image of the high-temperature area and a pixel of the image of the concerned areas, and obtaining a matching value for each pair of the pixels and a sum of the matching values, where the matching value is a quantitative measurement of the similarity between the two pixels.

14. The temperature sensing method of claim 13, wherein the sum of the matching values exceeds a critical value, indicating the high-temperature area is the major area.

15. The temperature sensing method of claim 10, wherein the temperature profile of the target surface is detected with an infrared image sensing technology.

16. The temperature sensing method of claim 10, wherein the tcmperatuare profile of the target surface is detected with a microwave image sensing technology.

17. The temperature sensing method of claim 10, further comprising a step of

labelling the high-temperature area with various colors.

18. The temperature sensing method of claim 10, further comprising a step of:

retaining the image of the high-temperature area and discarding the rest of the heat image of the target surface.