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:
Feb. 17, 2009
Filed:
Jul. 05, 2006
Richard A. Burne, Ellicott City, MD (US);
Dan T. Horak, Ellicott City, MD (US);
Timothy J. Case, Marriottsville, MD (US);
Richard A. Burne, Ellicott City, MD (US);
Dan T. Horak, Ellicott City, MD (US);
Timothy J. Case, Marriottsville, MD (US);
Honeywell International Inc., Morristown, NJ (US);
Abstract
A thermally-directed optical imager and a method of thermally-directing optical processing are described. The thermally-directed imager includes a thermal image sensor, an optical image sensor, and a processor. The thermal and optical sensors respectively generate thermal image and optical image signals. The processor uses the thermal image signal to determine an optical processing region, which the processor uses to derive a compressed-image signal. The optical processing region may be determined by detecting a center of heat-mass associated with the thermal image signal or by performing an edge detection algorithm. In addition, the thermally-directed imager may be focused, zoomed, or centered via the thermal image signal.