Measurement system and method

• US 20060050766A1
• Filed: 10/27/2005
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: White Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: White Box Incorporated
• Inventors: Baghai, Shahin, Hollander, Milton Bernard
• Granted Patent: US 7,537,381 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 374/121
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/02 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/025 Interfacing a pyrometer to an external device or network; User interface
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/026 Control of working procedures of a pyrometer, other than calibration; Bandwidth calculation; Gain control
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0265 Handheld, portable ear thermometers G01J5/049
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0275 Control or determination of height or distance or angle information for sensors or receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/04 Casings
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/07 Arrangements for adjusting the solid angle of collected radiation, e.g. adjusting or orienting field of view, tracking position or encoding angular position optical collimating elements G01J5/0806
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/08 Optical arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0893 Arrangements to attach devices to a pyrometer, i.e. attaching an optical interface; Spatial relative arrangement of optical elements, e.g. folded beam path G01J5/049 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0896 using a light source, e.g. for illuminating a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/10 using transmission of interrupted, pulse-modulated waves determination of distance by phase measurement G01S15/32
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/86 Combinations of sonar systems with lidar systems; Combinations of sonar systems with systems not using wave reflection

Abstract

A radiometer includes a sighting system which generates an image of an area on the surface of an object onto the IR detector. The distance between the object surface and the radiometer is measured by a rangefinder, controlled by the radiometer. From the distance one can calculate the size of the energy zone on the surface, as materialized on a radiometer sighting system display.

Claims

1. A system for indicating the location of an energy zone on an object surface, the energy zone being an area on the object surface that is imaged onto an IR detector by the IR optical system included in a non-contact IR thermal measurement device, said system comprising:

a sub-system for displaying an image of at least a part of the object surface;

a range-finding sub-system for measuring the distance between the non-contact thermal measurement device and the object surface and outputting a distance signal indicating a measured distance; and

an optical sub-system, coupled to said range-finding sub-system, displaying an image determined by said received measured distance and indicating the extent of said displayed image including the energy zone.

2. A radiometer having an IR detector and an optical field of view comprising:

a sighting system that generates an image of an energy zone from the surface of an object of measurement onto said radiometer IR detector;

means indicating the extent of said energy zone imaged onto said IR detector;

a range-finder which measures the distance between said radiometer and said object surface; and

means on said radiometer coupled to said range finder which indicates the radiometer optical field of view.

3. A non-contact thermal measurement device for identifying an energy zone on the surface of an object of measurement, the energy zone being an area on said surface imaged onto an IR detector of a radiometer by an IR optical system comprising:

an image sub-system for displaying an image of at least a part of said surface;

a range-finding sub-system for measuring the distance between said non-contact thermal measurement device and said object surface and outputting a distance signal indicating a measured distance between said device and said surface; and

an optical sub-system coupled to said range-finding sub-system indicating a distance between said device and said surface and identifying the extent of said energy zone.

4. A method for indicating the location of an energy zone on an object surface, said zone being an area imaged onto an IR detector by an optical system of a non-contact thermal measurement device, said method comprising the steps of:

acquiring an image of said object surface;

displaying an image of said object surface;

measuring the distance from said device to said surface;

indicating the portion of said image which includes said energy zone; and

indicating the location of said zone in said image.

5. A system for indicating the location of an energy zone of an object surface to measure the temperature thereof, said energy zone being an area on said surface which is imaged onto the IR detector of the IR optical system of a non-contact thermal measurement device, said system comprising:

means for acquiring an image of said object surface;

means for displaying an image of said surface;

means for measuring distance between said device and said surface; and

means indicating a part of said surface on said image which includes said zone; and

means indicating the location. of said zone derived from said distance.

6. The combination of an infrared radiometer with a laser sighting means, a radiometer to target distance measuring means, a digital camera and means to display the image of a target surface together with target surface temperature;

and means to change the optical field of view of said radiometer in accordance with measured target distance.

7. A non-contact infrared radiometer in a measurement system comprising:

(a) an optical sub-system which collects IR energy from the energy zone on a target surface to be measured and focuses said collected energy onto an IR detector;

(b) a laser sighting sub-system that projects a visible light pattern onto said target surface to indicate the size and location of the optical field of view of said radiometer on said target surface;

(c) a range finder sub-system that measures the distance between said target surface and said radiometer;

(d) an electronic sub-system, including a processor having a memory, which reads output from said range finder, calculates and displays distance from said target and then displays optical field of view size from optical chart data stored in processor memory, and may be keypad controlled to calculate and to display temperature, including means to set a specific distance or optical field of view size which activates an alarm and/or controls start/stop of measurement;

(e) a digital optical sub-system that captures and displays a digital image of said target to show the size and location of said energy zone and displays target temperature, emissivity, distance, optical field of view size, alarm settings, time and date in a snap shot or video clip format; and

(f) means to download said digital images, videos or real time images to a PC, including broadcast means to transmit or receive wireless data with another station.