Optical gas imaging systems and method compatible with uncooled thermal imaging cameras

A thermal imaging system comprising:

• an infrared camera;
• a user interface;
• and
• a processor in communication with the user interface and the infrared camera, the processor being configured to capture infrared images via the infrared camera, wherein upon a detected actuation from the user interface, the processor is configured to:
• (a) perform a non-uniformity correction (NUC) process to establish NUC values that, when applied to infrared image data received from the infrared camera, reduce or eliminate fixed pattern noise (FPN) in the infrared image data;
• (b) capture infrared images of a target scene via the infrared camera at a plurality of times, wherein the NUC values are applied to infrared image data in each of the infrared images of the target scene to reduce or eliminate FPN in the infrared image data;
• (c) register the infrared images of the target scene via an image stabilization process to produce registered infrared images;
• (d) perform an optical gas imaging process using the registered infrared images to generate optical gas image data indicating a change in the target scene, wherein to generate the optical gas image data the processor is configured to:
• create a filtered background image by combining infrared image data from a first plurality of infrared images captured by the infrared camera using a first filtering process, the first filtering process including a first filtering parameter;
• create a filtered foreground image by combining infrared image data from a second plurality of infrared images captured by the infrared camera using a second filtering process, the second filtering process including a second filtering parameter;
• and
• compare the filtered background image with the filtered foreground image;
• and
• (e) generate a display image including the optical gas image data for presentation on a display.