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. 02, 2002
Filed:
Feb. 12, 2001
Robert L. Kurtz, New Market, AL (US);
Richard R. Holmes, Guntersville, AL (US);
William K. Witherow, Huntsville, AL (US);
Abstract
An optical image enhancement system provides improved image contrast in imaging of a target in high temperature surroundings such as a furnace. The optical system includes a source of vertically polarized light such as laser and a beam splitter for receiving the light and directing the light toward the target. A retardation plate is affixed to a target-facing surface of the beam splitter and a vertical polarizer is disposed along a common optical path with the beam splitter between the retardation plate and the target. A horizontal polarizer, disposed in the common optical path, receives light passing through a surface of the beam splitter opposed to the target-facing surface. An image detector is disposed at one end of the optical path. A band pass filter having a band pass filter characteristic matching the frequency of the vertically polarized light source is disposed in the path between the horizontal polarizer and the image detector. The use of circular polarization, together with cross polarizers, enables the reflected light to be passed to the detector while blocking thermal radiation.