The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 23, 1996
Filed:
Aug. 05, 1993
Joan Lasenby, Hardwick, GB;
Kidde-Graviner Limited, Derby, GB;
Abstract
A flame detection apparatus and method includes a camera, preferably operating in the near I.R. which produces a succession of images of a space to be monitored. The image intensity of each pixel in each image is converted to a binary value by comparing it with the average intensity value for that image. For each pixel in an image the average intensity value for all of the images is calculated. The binary intensity value of each pixel in an image is then compared with the binary intensity value of the corresponding pixels in all the other images to produce a crossing frequency value dependent on the number of times those binary values change state. The average intensity values and the crossing frequency values are then processed for each pixel according to a predetermined relationship to produce a constant. If the values of this constant for a cluster of adjacent pixels are found to be the same or nearly so, this is considered to indicate a flame. The crossing frequency values may be processed to eliminate those values lying outside a frequency range corresponding to flames so as to eliminate the corresponding pixels from the final assessment step.