Method and apparatus for monitoring the thermal characteristics of an image

• US 6,606,115 B1
• Filed: 04/18/1998
• Issued: 08/12/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Teledyne FLIR LLC (Teledyne Technologies Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Flir Systems-Boston, Inc. (Teledyne Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Poirier, Bruce A., Alicandro, Christopher J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kelley, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): An, Shawn S.
• Application Number:
  US09/062,538
• Time in Patent Office: 1,942 Days
• Field of Search: 348/164, 348/169, 250/230, 250/349, 250/342, 250/352, 250/358, 250/332
• US Class Current: 348/164
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2005/0077 Imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0066 for hot spots detection
• 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 5/48 Thermography; Techniques using wholly visual means
• 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

A method and apparatus for automatically identifying and tracking the hottest spot in an infrared scene captured and displayed by an infrared camera system. In an Autospot Mode of the present invention, a cursor is automatically positioned on the display device over the hottest spot in the infrared scene image captured by the camera. The temperature at this location is also automatically displayed. The location of the cursor, and the temperature of the scene at this location, are automatically updated for successive frames of data captured and displayed by the infrared camera system. In a Delta Mode of the present invention, the difference in temperature between two points in a thermal image, designated by an operator using first and second cursors, is calculated and displayed.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring thermal characteristics of a scene captured using an infrared camera system, comprising the steps of:

capturing a frame of thermal data;

deriving a temperature value corresponding with each spot in the frame of thermal data;

automatically detecting a spot having a selected temperature characteristic with respect to other spots in the frame of thermal data;

displaying the frame of thermal data on a display device;

displaying a visual indicator on the display device positioned over the spot having the selected temperature characteristic;

automatically tracking the spot having the selected temperature characteristic over a plurality of successive frames of the thermal data by performing the above steps for each of the successive frames of the thermal data;

displaying another visual indicator on the display device positioned over another spot on the display device and wherein the position of the another visual indicator on the display device is controllable by an operator of the infrared camera system; and

displaying thermal information relating to the captured thermal data over the frame of thermal data being displayed on the display device and wherein the thermal information includes a temperature difference between the spot having the selected temperature characteristic and the another spot.

2. A method for monitoring thermal characteristics of a scene captured using an infrared camera system, comprising the steps of:

capturing thermal data;

automatically detecting a the hottest spot in the thermal data;

displaying the thermal data on a display device;

automatically displaying a first visual indicator on the display device over the hottest spot detected;

displaying a second visual indicator on the display device;

positioning the second visual indicator over a second spot in the thermal data; and

,

displaying a temperature difference between the hottest spot and the second spot.

3. A method according to claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

automatically tracking the hottest spot in the thermal data;

automatically displaying and positioning the first visual indicator on the display device over the hottest spot; and

,

automatically displaying the temperature difference between the hottest spot and the second spot.

4. An infrared camera system comprising:

an infrared sensor assembly for capturing a video thermal image of a scene and for providing an analog video image signal representative of the scene;

an A/D converter for converting the analog video image signal to provide captured thermal data representative of the scene;

a frame buffer for storing a plurality of successive frames of the captured thermal data;

a display device for displaying the plurality of successive frames of captured thermal data;

a processor for deriving a temperature value corresponding with each spot in each of the successive frames of thermal data and for automatically detecting a spot having a selected temperature characteristic with respect to other spots in each of the plurality of successive frames of the thermal data;

a display device driver in communication with the processor for displaying the successive frames of thermal data and for displaying a first visual indicator over the captured thermal data and coincident with the spot having the selected temperature characteristic and for tracking the position of the spot over each of the successive frames of captured thermal data and further wherein the display device driver is in communication with a keypad and further wherein the display device displays a second visual indicator over each of the plurality of successive frames of the captured thermal data and wherein the second visual indicator is movable to a second spot in the captured video data in response to keypad inputs; and

,

wherein a temperature difference between the spot having the selected temperature characteristic and the second spot is displayed on the display device and the displayed temperature difference is updated by the processor for each successive frame.

5. A method for monitoring thermal characteristics of a scene captured using an infrared camera system, comprising the steps of:

storing successive frames of thermal data in a frame buffer while the infrared camera system is continuously operating;

displaying the thermal data on a display device;

selecting a first spot in the thermal data, said first spot having a first temperature;

displaying a first visual indicator on the display device over said first spot in the thermal data;

selecting a second spot in the thermal data;

displaying a second visual indicator on the display device over said second spot in the thermal data;

determining a temperature difference between the temperature of the first spot and a temperature of the second spot; and

,

displaying the temperature difference on the display device.

6. The method according to claim 5 further comprising the steps of:

fixing a position of the first visual indicator on the display device;

repositioning the second visual indicator to select a plurality of other spots of thermal data displayed on the display device;

determining a temperature difference between the temperature of the first spot and each of the other spots; and

,

displaying each temperature difference on the display device.

7. A method for monitoring thermal characteristics of a scene captured using an infrared camera comprising:

capturing a frame of thermal data;

displaying the frame of thermal data on a display device;

selecting a first spot in the thermal data and positioning a first visual indicator on the display device over the first spot;

selecting a second spot in the thermal data and positioning a second visual indicator on the display device over the second spot; and

,

deriving a temperature difference between the first spot and the second spot.

8. A method according to claim 7 further comprising the step of displaying the temperature difference on the display device.

9. A method according to claim 8 further comprising the step of updating the temperature difference for each successive frame of thermal data.

10. An infrared camera system comprising:

an infrared sensor assembly for capturing a video thermal image of a scene and for providing an analog video image signal representative of the scene;

an A/D converter for converting the analog video image signal to provide captured thermal data representative of the scene;

a frame buffer for storing a plurality of successive frames of the captured thermal data;

a display device for displaying the captured thermal data;

means for formatting the plurality of successive frames of the captured thermal data for display on the display device;

a processor for deriving a temperature value for each spot in each of the plurality of successive frames of the thermal data;

a display device driver in communication with the processor for displaying a first visual and a second visual indicator over the captured thermal data in each of the plurality of successive frames of the captured thermal data;

a keypad for controlling a position of the first and the second visual indicators on the display device such that each of the first and the second visual indicators is separately movable to two different selected spots in the captured video data in response to keypad inputs for obtaining the temperature value of each of the two different selected spots and wherein the processor calculates a temperature difference between the two different selected spots indicated by the first and second visual indicators; and

,

wherein the display device driver is configured to display the temperature difference between the two different selected spots on the display device.