US 2021/0348971 A1 · POST-PROCESSING METHOD TO EXTEND THE FUNCTIONAL RANGE OF OPTICAL BACKSCATTER REFLECTOMETRY IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

A system and method for determining an object characteristic from a timed sequence of measured characteristics wherein the object characteristic is determined based on a comparison of a current measured characteristic against a variable reference characteristic. The variable reference characteristic is selected by iterating through the timed sequenced and determining a separate quality metric for the current measured characteristic against each earlier measured characteristic and selecting the variable reference as a function of the determined quality metrics. In one embodiment, iteration continues only until an earlier measured characteristics is found with a quality metric that meets or exceeds a threshold value. In another embodiment, iteration continues through a plurality of earlier measured characteristic (perhaps all) and the variable reference is selected as the earlier measured characteristic with the highest quality metric. The measured characteristics may include OFDR measurements.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

a data processing apparatus communicatively coupled with a sensor configured to measure a first characteristic of a physical medium;
and
memory communicatively coupled with the data processing apparatus, the memory encoding instructions that, when executed by the data processing apparatus, cause the system to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from the sensor, a timed sequence of measurements of the first characteristic of the physical medium;
and
determining a set of values of a second characteristic of the physical medium corresponding to the timed sequence of the first characteristic's measurements, wherein the set of second characteristic's values is determined by performing, for each measurement of the timed sequence, operations comprising:
determining a quality value for the measurement based on a reference measurement selected from among earlier measurements of the timed sequence, wherein the reference measurement is selected by iterating through the earlier measurements and selecting the reference measurement based on the quality value,
determining a change of the measurement relative to the reference measurement, and
determining a value of the second characteristic of the physical medium based on the measurement's change.

6 more elements

A system for determining an object characteristic of a physical media from a timed sequence of measured characteristics of the physical medium, comprising:

a memory storing a timed sequence of measured characteristics obtained from a sensor;
and
a processor coupled to memory, the processor configured to determine the object characteristic associated with a target measured characteristic based on a comparison of the target measured characteristic with a reference measured characteristic selected from among the timed sequence of measured characteristics;
wherein the reference measured characteristic is selected by the processor from among the timed sequence of measured characteristics based on a quality metric, the quality metric representing a level of correlation between the target measured characteristic and the reference measured characteristic;
and
wherein, upon selection of the reference measured characteristic, the processor determines the object characteristic associated with the target measured characteristic as a function of a change between the target measured characteristic and the selected reference measured characteristic.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Post-processing method to extend the functional range of optical backscatter reflectometry in extreme environments

Life of this patent

Post-processing method to extend the functional range of optical backscatter reflectometry in extreme environments

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20