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:
Mar. 07, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 14, 1998
Dino J Farina, Waltham, MA (US);
Henry A Lyden, Wellesley, MA (US);
Temptronic Corporation, Newton, MA (US);
Abstract
A method of and system for determining the location of hot spots on the surface of an object which has thermotropic material applied to the surface are disclosed. The system is designed to varying the nominal temperature of the object through a range of nominal temperatures between a first nominal temperature limit and a second nominal temperature limit, wherein one temperature limit is below and the other nominal temperature limit is above the temperature at which the thermotropic material changes phase. A sequence of images of the surface are acquired, each of the images depicting a two dimensional temperature representation of the surface at a predetermined nominal temperature within the range of nominal temperatures, wherein each image in the sequence represents an incremental change in nominal temperature than that of a preceding image. Select ones of the images are processed to define the intensity signature of valid hot spots in the select ones of the images and to determine the location of the hot spots on the surface as a function of the defined intensity signature.