Fire detector with electronic frequency analysis
First Claim
1. A flame detection system, comprising:
- a plurality of sensors covering at least a wide band infrared spectrum;
a plurality of sensor signals output from said sensors; and
a controller connected to said sensor signals, said controller configured to transform each of said sensor signals into a plurality constituent frequency components, to compare said constituent frequency components of said sensor signals, and to determine whether a potential fire exists based upon the comparison of said constituent frequency components, wherein said plurality of sensors comprise a wide band infrared sensor, a near band infrared sensor, and a visible band sensor, and wherein said plurality of sensor signals comprise a wide band infrared sensor signal, a near band infrared sensor signal, and a visible band sensor signal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A process and system for flame detection includes a microprocessor-controlled detector with a first sensor for sensing temporal energy in a first optical frequency range, and a second sensor for sensing temporal energy in a second optical frequency range. The temporal energy sensed in the respective first and second optical frequency ranges are transformed into respective first and second spectra of frequency components. A compensated spectrum of frequency components is generated by performing a frequency bin subtraction of the first and second spectra of frequency components. The compensated spectrum represents the energy emitted from the environment with energy emitted from false alarm sources. An average amplitude and centroid of the compensated spectrum are obtained and used to determine if a monitored phenomenon represents an unwanted fire situation. The compensated spectrum can be compared to reference compensated spectra of frequency components generated from known unwanted fire sources and known false alarm sources.
37 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A flame detection system, comprising:
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a plurality of sensors covering at least a wide band infrared spectrum;
a plurality of sensor signals output from said sensors; and
a controller connected to said sensor signals, said controller configured to transform each of said sensor signals into a plurality constituent frequency components, to compare said constituent frequency components of said sensor signals, and to determine whether a potential fire exists based upon the comparison of said constituent frequency components, wherein said plurality of sensors comprise a wide band infrared sensor, a near band infrared sensor, and a visible band sensor, and wherein said plurality of sensor signals comprise a wide band infrared sensor signal, a near band infrared sensor signal, and a visible band sensor signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method for flame detection, comprising the steps of:
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detecting radiant energy as a function of time over a plurality of frequency spectrums including at least a wide band infrared frequency spectrum, and generating a plurality of sensor signals thereby;
transforming each of said sensor signals into a plurality of constituent frequency components;
comparing said constituent frequency components of said sensor signals; and
determining whether a potential fire exists based upon the comparison of said constituent frequency components, wherein said step of detecting radiant energy over said plurality of frequency spectrums comprises the step of detecting radiant energy over a wide band infrared frequency spectrum, a near band infrared frequency spectrum, and a visible band frequency spectrum, and wherein said plurality of sensor signals comprise a wide band infrared sensor signal, a near band infrared sensor signal, and a visible band sensor signal. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of detecting an unwanted fire situation, comprising the steps of:
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(a) transforming temporal radiant energy sensed from an environment into a first spectrum of frequency components;
(b) transforming temporal radiant energy sensed from false-alarm sources into a second spectrum of frequency components;
(c) generating a compensated spectrum of frequency components based on a comparison between the respective first and second spectra of frequency components; and
(d) detecting the unwanted fire situation based upon the compensated spectrum of frequency components. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification