Industrial process monitoring and imaging
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system for imaging material contained inside an enclosure, comprising:
- a plurality of synchronized acoustic sensors positioned at a periphery of an inner volume of the enclosure to sense acoustic energy emanating from the material in the enclosure during an industrial process; and
a processor that combines an output of each of the acoustic sensor to identify at least one ambient noise source generating a noise field that illuminates the inner volume of the enclosure and to produce image data of the material by temporal and spatial coherent processing of the transmission and reflection of the noise field generated by the noise source;
wherein an output of each sensor in a group of closely spaced sensors are combined to enhance a directional sensitivity to the acoustic signal emanating within the enclosure.
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Abstract
Exemplary embodiments include an apparatus for imaging a volume of material contained inside a vessel. The apparatus includes a plurality of synchronized acoustic sensors positioned at a periphery of an inner volume of the vessel. A processor combines the outputs of the acoustic sensors to identify at least one ambient noise source of the industrial process generating a noise field that illuminates an internal volume of the vessel and to provide an image of the material by temporal and spatial coherent processing of the transmission and reflection of the noise field generated by the noise source.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A system for imaging material contained inside an enclosure, comprising:
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a plurality of synchronized acoustic sensors positioned at a periphery of an inner volume of the enclosure to sense acoustic energy emanating from the material in the enclosure during an industrial process; and a processor that combines an output of each of the acoustic sensor to identify at least one ambient noise source generating a noise field that illuminates the inner volume of the enclosure and to produce image data of the material by temporal and spatial coherent processing of the transmission and reflection of the noise field generated by the noise source; wherein an output of each sensor in a group of closely spaced sensors are combined to enhance a directional sensitivity to the acoustic signal emanating within the enclosure. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of imaging material in an inner volume of an enclosure, comprising:
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detecting acoustic signals generated by an industrial process through a plurality of synchronized sensors positioned at a periphery of the inner volume of the enclosure; identifying at least one ambient noise source generating a noise field that illuminates the inner volume of the enclosure comprising generating a map of the detected acoustic signals in the inner volume of the enclosure; and
associating the mapped acoustic signals with characteristics of the industrial process; andgenerating an acoustic image of material illuminated by the noise field through temporal and spatial coherent processing of the transmission and reflection of the noise field generated by the at least one ambient noise source; wherein generating the map of the detected acoustic signals, comprises; generating a plurality of two-dimensional image slices of the inner volume of the enclosure; and combining the two-dimensional image slices to generate a three-dimensional image of at least a portion of the inner volume of the enclosure. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A computer readable medium containing a program which when compiled on a computer causes the computer to execute a process of imaging material in an inner volume of an enclosure of an industrial process, the method comprising:
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synchronizing acoustic signals of a plurality of sensors disposed at a periphery of the inner volume of the enclosure; generating a plurality of two-dimensional images of the inner volume of the enclosure based on the synchronized acoustic signals; associating the synchronized acoustic signals with characteristics of the material in the industrial process; identifying at least one source of the synchronized signals in the enclosure; and stacking the plurality of two-dimensional images to generate a three-dimensional image of the inner volume of the enclosure.
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Specification