CAMERA, COMPUTER PROGRAM AND METHOD FOR MEASURING THERMAL RADIATION AND THERMAL RATES OF CHANGE

• US 20130048855A1
• Filed: 08/24/2012
• Published: 02/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Progress Rail Services Corporation (Caterpillar Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Custom Scene Technology, Inc
• Inventors: Abreo, Gabriel G.
• Granted Patent: US 9,000,371 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 250/330
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2005/0077 Imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2005/202 Arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0025 Living bodies ear thermometers G01J5/0011; detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• 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 5/04 Casings
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/068 by controlling parameters other than temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0805 Means for chopping radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/20 using resistors, thermistors or semiconductors sensitive to radiation, e.g. photoconductive devices
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/485 Temperature profile
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/23 from thermal infrared radiation
• 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

The present invention is directed to a camera, computer program, and method for determining and displaying temperature rates of change for objects within the camera'"'"'s field of view. More specifically, the embodiments provide for the continuous, real-time temperature measurement and display of a plurality of objects within the camera'"'"'s field of view, and further for the real-time processing and display of the temperature rates of change for said objects.

Claims

1. A thermal imaging camera for measuring temperature rates of change for objects within a field of view, said camera comprising—

a housing;

at least one infrared radiation sensor comprising a plurality of sensing elements, wherein each sensing element in said plurality is operable to detect an intensity of thermal radiation incident upon said sensing element during one or more thermal scenes;

a memory element operable to store data comprising the intensity level of thermal radiation incident upon each sensing element during the one or more thermal scenes;

a processing element operable to manipulate the data to determine temperature rates of change of said objects within the camera'"'"'s field of view, wherein the rates of change are determined by comparing the data detected by each sensing element between at least two of the one or more thermal scenes; and

a display operable to present in real time, image and video representations of the temperature rate of change of said objects.

2. The camera of claim 1, wherein the display presents a magnitude of the temperature rate of change as a graphic color display, with negative temperature rates of change displayed in shades of a first color and positive temperature rates of change displayed in shades of a second color.

3. The camera of claim 1, wherein the display presents the temperature rates of change for each sensing element of the sensor.

4. The camera of claim 1, wherein the display presents the temperature rates of change for a subset of the sensing elements of the sensor.

5. The camera of claim 1, wherein the processing element is further operable to perform one or more of the following:

a. temperature drift correction,

b. pattern recognition,

c. spatial noise filtering, and

d. temporal noise filtering.

6. The camera of claim 1, wherein the display is further operable to present minimum, maximum, and average temperatures of objects within the camera'"'"'s field of view.

7. The camera of claim 1, wherein the sensing element are arranged in a two-dimensional focal plane array.

8. A method for measuring temperature rates of change for objects within a field of view of a thermal imaging camera having a memory element and a processing element, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining, via the camera, an first image scene comprising data indicative of temperatures of objects within the camera'"'"'s field of view;

calculating, via the processing element, the temperatures of the objects within the first image scene;

storing information indicative of the temperatures of the objects within the first image scene in the memory element;

detecting one or more areas of interest within the first image scene, wherein each of the one or more areas of interest correspond to an arrangement of one or more of the objects within the camera'"'"'s field of view;

storing each of the one or more areas of interest from the first image scene in the memory element;

obtaining, via the camera, a second image scene comprising data indicative of temperatures of objects within the camera'"'"'s field of view;

calculating, via the processing element, the temperatures of the objects within the second image scene;

storing information indicative of the temperatures of the objects within the second image scene in the memory element;

detecting one or more areas of interest within the second image scene, wherein each of the one or more areas of interest correspond to an arrangement of one or more of the objects within the camera'"'"'s field of view;

performing a pattern recognition, whereby the areas of interest detected within the second image scene are compared with the areas of interest stored in the memory;

upon an indication that one or more of the areas of interest from the second image scene match one or more of the areas of interest within the memory element, calculating a temperature differences between the matched areas of interest;

calculating a temperature rate of change for the matched areas of interest, wherein the rate of change is determined based on a time period over which the temperature difference took place;

storing each of the one or more areas of interest from the second image scene in the memory element; and

displaying the temperature rate of change on an electronic display of the thermal imaging camera.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the data indicative of temperatures is obtained via an infrared sensor comprising a plurality of sensing elements.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the areas of interest are detected based upon an indication that an average temperature of the arrangement of one or more objects has exceeded a threshold temperature.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the areas of interest are detected based upon a size of the areas of interest exceeding a threshold number of sensing elements.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the temperature rate of change is displayed as a graphic color display, with negative temperature rates of change displayed in shades of a first color and positive temperature rates of change displayed in shades of a second color.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the temperature rate of change is displayed as a range of colors that overlay a visual image of the image scene, wherein each color in the range corresponds to a magnitude of the temperature rate of change for the area of interest.

14. A thermal imaging camera for measuring temperature rates of change between regions within a field of view, said camera comprising—

at least one infrared radiation sensor comprising a plurality of sensing elements, wherein, for a given thermal scene, a first group of sensing elements included in the plurality is operable to detect an intensity of thermal radiation incident upon said group from a first region within the field of view and a second group of sensing elements is operable to detect an intensity of thermal radiation incident upon said group from a second region within the field of view;

a memory element operable to store data comprising the intensity level of thermal radiation incident upon each sensing element included in the first group and second group;

a processing element operable to manipulate the data to determine the temperature rate of change between the first region and the second region, wherein the rate of change is determined by comparing the data detected by the first group of sensing elements with the data detected by the second group of sensing elements during the given thermal scene; and

a display operable to present in real time, image and video representations of the temperature rate of change of said regions.

15. The camera of claim 14, wherein the display presents the temperature rate of change as a graphic arrow, with the direction of the arrow indicative of the direction of the temperature rate of change between the regions.

16. The camera of claim 14, wherein a length of the arrow is indicative of the magnitude of the temperature rate of change between the regions.

17. The camera of claim 14, wherein a color of the arrow is indicative of the magnitude of the temperature rate of change between the regions, with negative temperature rates of change displayed in shades of a first color and positive temperature rates of change displayed in shades of a second color.

18. The camera of claim 14, wherein the display further presents a numerical figure indicative of the magnitude of the rate of change between the regions.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the regions are selected by a user of the camera.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the regions are selected by the processor based upon an indication that regions have a unique pattern or temperature profile.