Thermal and Visible Images are inconsistent Thermal Images do not look similar to visible light images Especially in low contrast images it can be difficult to see the edges httpwwwnasagovcentersgoddardnewstopstory2007jwstinfraredhtml ID: 657218
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Slide1
The Problem
Current infrared camera technology makes it difficult to identify points of interest due to:Thermal and Visible Images are inconsistentThermal Images do not look similar to visible light imagesEspecially in low contrast images it can be difficult to see the “edges”
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/jwst_infrared.html
E.g. Where is this man’s chin?
http://activerain.trulia.com/blogsview/2406611/avoid-costly-mold-testing-with-ogden-utah-infrared-home-inspectionsSlide2
This is how other people fixed this problem
Control ImageA visible light (VL) image taken using a separate VL camera built into the IR cameraE.g. FLIR ThermaCam® P65Does not offer automatic alignment or merging of images
Laser PointerLaser allows user to manually point laser into area of interestE.g. FLIR ThermaCam® E65The laser is not visible in the IR spectrumProblematic if there is a large hot or cold spot
Hard to identify exact area of interestSlide3
The SolutionSlide4
Kirk R. Johnson, Thomas McManus, and John W.
PrattenTheir solutionCombine both solutionsThe title of the patentVisible Light and IR Combined Image Camera with a Laser PointerThis is new!Offers automatic alignment of VL images and images corrected for parallax error
Can blend VL and IR imagesHigher contrast => Allows for cheaper, higher quality IR imagingUses a laser pointer to identify area of interest as well as align the imagesSlide5
Results
IR Image
VL Image
Blended Image (alpha)
http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=07538326&SectionNum=1&IDKey=DED6CE9A235E&HomeUrl=http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/patimg.htm