Seek Thermal, Inc.

Other

Ross Williams

William J Parrish

Jason Wolfe

Andreas Engberg

Blake Henry

Jeffrey Lee

Derek Moran

Russ Mead

Romeo Chahine

Jacob Collins

Jeffery Lee

Systems and methods based on thermal imaging for rapid detection of fever conditions in humans that provide for extremely inexpensive, mass producible, field deployable devices accurate in specific, relatively low temperature ranges, and in particular temperatures near nominal human body temperature. The system may include a thermal imager tailored for the application and a corresponding mass producible controlled temperature calibration source configured to provide real time calibration near the human body temperature of interest. The imager and source are deployed in a way such that target people and the calibration source will be within the imager FOV for fever detection. The combination of real time near measurement temperature calibration, with suitable thermography approaches, yield fast, accurate measurements in the fever range using low cost, easy-to-produce components. In combination with a visible imager and pattern/facial recognition techniques, detection of a human target's facial regions of interest suitable for fever detection can be accurately accomplished.

Cost effective, mass producible system for rapid detection of fever conditions based on thermal imaging

An ultra-small thermal imaging core, or micro-core. The design of the micro-core may include substrates for mounting optics and electronic connectors that are thermally matched to the imaging Focal Plane Array (FPA). Test fixtures for test and adjustment that allow for operation and image acquisition of multiple cores may also be provided. Tooling may be included to position the optics to set the core focus, either by moving the lens and lens holder as one or by pushing and/or pulling the lens against a lens positioning element within the lens holder, while observing a scene. Test procedures and fixtures that allow for full temperature calibration of each individual core, as well as providing data useful for uniformity correction during operation may also be included as part of the test and manufacture of the core.

Design, test, and operation of a small thermal imaging core

A thermography process for thermal imaging systems produced in quantity, including an imaging sensor and an ambient temperature sensor, that includes operations at three different places in the manufacture and actual use of the system. A temperature calibration may be performed on all units of a given design at a small number of controlled scene temperatures at one ambient temperature to produce a function that relates sensor signal to scene temperature. The function is determined for each individual unit and may be unique for each unit. Selected calibrated units may be subjected to a qualification test where they are exposed to larger number of controlled scene temperatures at a plurality of controlled ambient temperatures and the errors between the calibration derived function and the observed results and/or the actual scene temperatures at the various scene/ambient temperature combinations may be derived and put into a table that is loaded into all production units. In actual use of the imaging system, for any given actual observed signal and temperature sensor values, the corresponding scene temperature and/or error may be derived from the table and used to modify the temperature value from the calibration function.

Thermography process for converting signal to temperature in a thermal imaging system

An imaging system whose Field of View FOV experiences occasional motion in relation to viewed scenes may be configured to reduce Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN) of acquired image data. FPN may be reduced by developing a pixel by pixel FPN correction term through a series of steps including blurring the image, identifying pixels to exclude from some calculations, a motion detector and an FPN updater for frames under motion and an FPN decay element for frames that are still.

Fixed pattern noise mitigation for a thermal imaging system

Systems and methods for allocating display colors to thermal image intensity data acquired by thermal band photodetectors. Intensity data from the photodetectors corresponding to scene temperature is converted to a digital value within an analog to digital conversion (ADC) range. The full ADC range may be divided into two or more sub-ranges. In one sub-range, intensity values within that sub-range are assigned display colors from a first color table utilizing one or more Histogram Equalization (HE) techniques. In another sub-range, specific display values from a color table different from the first may be are assigned to specific intensity values. Lower temperatures may be assigned colors using HE and higher temperatures are assigned specific colors corresponding to specific temperatures. Such an arrangement is particularly applicable to thermal imaging use by firefighters because the arrangement allows them to determine temperature directly from displayed color for potentially dangerous temperatures.

Color display modes for a thermal imaging system

Imaging systems and methods are disclosed that use locally flat scenes to adjust image data. An imaging system includes an array of photodetectors configured to produce an array of intensity values corresponding to light intensity at the photodetectors. The imaging system can be configured to acquire a frame of intensity values, or an image frame, and analyze the image frame to determine if it is locally flat. If the image frame is locally flat, then that image data can be used to determine gradients present in the image frame. An offset mask can be determined from the image data and that offset mask can be used to adjust subsequently acquired image frames to reduce or remove gradients.

Image adjustment based on locally flat scenes

A pop-up camper shell is provided, comprising: slide rails; a bed platform slideable along the slide rails; a pop-up top hingedly secured to a front of the bed platform; and a tent secured between the top of the tray and bed platform and the bottom of the pop-up top. The slides of the camper shell are securable to the roof of a vehicle. Alternatively, the camper shell may also include a tray, secured to the top of a shell body and having an opening to which the slides are secured. The tray is securable within the bed of a pickup truck. When the bed platform is in its forward position and the pop-up top in a raised or tilted position, the tent deploys to define an enclosed space accessible through an opening in the roof of the vehicle or from the truck bed through the opening in the tray.

Pop-up camper shell for pickup truck and vehicle roof

Pop-up camper shell for pickup truck

An imaging system includes an array of photodetectors and electronic circuitry associated with the photodetectors to read intensity values from the photodetectors. The electronic circuitry can include an integrator with an integrator capacitor having a nominal capacitance, wherein a gain of the electronic circuitry associated with a photodetector can depend at least in part on the actual capacitance of the integrator capacitor, the actual capacitance differing from the nominal capacitance. The imaging system can be configured to determine a gain factor that depends at least in part on the actual capacitance and/or a signal voltage input to the integrator. The imaging system can be configured to apply the gain factor based at least in part on the actual capacitance of the integrator capacitor calculated. The imaging system can be a thermal imaging system and may include an infrared camera core.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Barbara, CA, United States of America

Ross Williams