Visible light and IR combined image camera with a laser pointer

• US 20060289772A1
• Filed: 12/05/2005
• Published: 12/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fluke Corporation (Fortive Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Fluke Corporation (Fortive Corp.)
• Inventors: Johnson, Kirk R., McManus, Thomas, Pratten, John W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,538,326 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 250/370.80
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 3/08 Use of electric radiation detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/025 Interfacing a pyrometer to an external device or network; User interface
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0265 Handheld, portable ear thermometers G01J5/049
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0295 Nulling devices or absolute detection
• 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 5/0859 Sighting arrangements, e.g. cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0896 using a light source, e.g. for illuminating a surface
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14618 Containers
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14625 Optical elements or arrangements associated with the device
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/0002 Not covered by any one of groups H01L24/00, H01L24/00 and H01L2224/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/11 for generating image signals from visible and infrared light wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/45 for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/635 Region indicators; Field of view indicators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/67 Focus control based on electronic image sensor signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/33 Transforming infrared radiation cameras or camera modules for generating image signals from infrared radiation H04N23/20; circuitry of SSIS for transforming infrared radiation into image signals H04N25/20

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses of registering on a camera display separate fields of view of a visible light camera module and an infrared camera module by focusing the IR camera module. The fields of view can be displayed in several display modes including 1) full screen visible, infrared and/or blended, 2) picture-in-a-picture such as partial infrared image in a full screen visible image, and 3) infrared color alarms in visible-light images.

Claims

1. A method of displaying visible-light (VL) images and/or infrared (IR) images, the method comprising:

providing a camera having a VL camera module, an IR camera module, and a display, the VL camera module having a first field of view (FOV), the IR camera module having a second FOV different from the first FOV;

focusing the IR camera module on a target to create a focused second FOV;

the focusing of the IR camera module registering at least a portion of the first FOV corresponding to the focused second FOV with the focused second FOV; and

displaying an image of either the registered first FOV, the focused second FOV, or a blended image of the registered first FOV and the focused second FOV.

2. The method of claim 1, further including wherein determining a value indicative of the distance between the IR camera module and the target.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein focusing the IR camera module on the target comprises moving a lens of the IR camera module with respect to a sensor array of the IR camera module.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the sensor array comprising 160 pixels by 120 pixels.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the VL camera module, the IR camera module, and the display are mounted in a camera housing.

6. A method of displaying visible-light (VL) images and/or infrared (IR) images, the method comprising:

providing a camera having a VL camera module and an IR camera module and a display, the VL camera module having a first field of view (FOV), the IR camera module having a second FOV different from the first FOV, the VL camera module producing an image of the first FOV, the IR camera module producing an image of the second FOV;

displaying at least portions of the images from the VL camera module and the IR camera module on the display;

registering the images from the VL camera module and IR camera module on the display by displacing the images from the VL camera module and the IR camera module relative to each other until registered via a manual adjustment mechanism.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the manual adjustment is the focus mechanism for the IR camera module.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least portions of the image from the IR camera module is displayed generally centrally within the at least portions of the image from the VL camera module.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least portions of the image from the IR camera module is displayed alpha-blended with the at least portions of the image from the VL camera module.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least portions of the image from the IR camera module is displayed without the image from the VL camera module on a portion of the display.

11. A camera producing visible and infrared images, the camera comprising:

a visible camera module having a VL sensor and VL optics;

an IR camera module having an IR sensor and IR optics,

the VL camera module and the IR camera module being displaced from one another so that the IR and VL camera modules see a target scene from different views causing a parallax error;

means for eliminating the parallax error; and

a display for concurrently displaying images from the IR camera module and the VL camera module such that the images register without parallax error.

12. The camera of claim 11, wherein the visible camera module and the IR camera modules have separate fields of view, the visible camera module field of view being larger than the IR camera module field of view.

13. The camera of claim 11, further including a processor for selecting portions of the images from the IR camera module and the VL camera module that register together.

14. The camera of claim 11, wherein the means for eliminating the parallax error includes a focus mechanism of the IR camera module.

15. The camera of claim 14, wherein the focus mechanism includes a device for determining the distance between the IR optics and a sensor array of the IR camera module.

16. A computer-readable medium programmed with instructions for performing a method of registering images from multiple camera modules, the medium comprising instructions for causing a programmable processor to:

receive a first image that includes a target from a visible light (VL) camera module, the VL camera module having a first field of view (FOV);

receive a second image that includes the target from an infrared camera (IR) module, the infrared camera module having a second FOV;

determining the distance from at least one of the camera modules to the target;

correcting a parallax error using the determined distance;

registering the first and second registered images corrected for parallax error; and

displaying at least portions of the first and second images on a display with the portions of the first and second images registered.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the distance from the at least one of the camera modules to the target is determined by focusing the second FOV.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein a Hall-Effect sensor mounted within a focus mechanism in the VL camera module provides data indicating the distance from the at least one of the camera modules to the target.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying on the display the determined distance between the at least one of the camera modules and the target.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining and displaying the instantaneous field of view spot size of the at least portions of the first and second images being displayed.