Adaptive lamp control

An apparatus for determining the quality of an illuminating device, comprising:

• means for emitting light by said illuminating device;
• means for measuring said emitted light;
• means for determining whether output power of said illuminating device has stabilized within a predetermined period of time based upon a comparison of a present output power measurement of said illuminating device with an immediately preceding output power measurement;
• means for determining whether said emitted light of said illuminating device is within a predetermined value, said determining means comprising means for ascertaining an overall brightness of said illuminating device;
• an alarm for conveying that said determining means determines that said light emitted by said illuminating device is less than a selected minimum acceptable brightness threshold level;
• and
• predicting a useful remaining life of the radiation emission device based upon past period of time determinations required for the output power of the radiation emitting device to stabilize.

A method for determining a performance of an illuminating device, comprising the steps of:

• activating the illuminating device to emit radiation;
• measuring an output of the radiation over a plurality of time periods;
• determining whether the radiation output stabilizes within a predetermined period of time after the illuminating device is activated;
• measuring a radiation level of the illuminating device at a plurality of locations of the illuminating device;
• determining whether the radiation level of the illuminating device at the plurality of locations is within a preselected range;
• measuring an overall radiation intensity of the illuminating device;
• determining whether the overall radiation intensity is at least equal to a selected minimum value;
• activating an alarm to convex a failure condition if at least one determining step determines that an undesirable condition exists;
• and
• predicting a useful remaining life of the illuminating device based upon past period of time determinations required for the radiation output of the illuminating device to stabilize.

An apparatus for determining the quality of an illuminating device, comprising:

• a sensor;
• means for activating said illuminating device to emit a source of light, said light source being directed towards a reference strip and being detected by said sensor;
• an analyzer that interprets output signals of said sensor to determine a plurality of light emission characteristics of said illuminating device;
• an alarm that is activated to convey that at least one of said plurality of determined light emission characteristics of said illuminating device is below a preselected minimum value;
• and
• means for predicting a useful remaining life of the illuminating device, wherein one of the plurality of light emission characteristics comprises a stabilization characteristic of the illuminating device, and wherein the useful remaining life of the illuminating device is based upon the stabilization characteristic of the illuminating device.

A method for determining a performance of an illuminating device, comprising the steps of:

• detecting a light beam produced by the illuminating device;
• determining whether the detected light beam indicates that the performance of the illuminating device is within a plurality of desired prescribed ranges, the detected performance of the illuminating device being used to determine a useful remaining life of the illuminating device based upon an output stabilization characteristic of the illuminating device;
• and
• activating an alarm conveying that the performance of the illuminating device is determined to be outside of at least one desired prescribed range.

A method for diagnosing a performance of a radiation emitting device, comprising the steps of:

• supplying electrical power to an elongated radiation emitting device so that the elongated radiation emitting device emits radiation;
• receiving the radiation with an imaging array;
• a first determining step of determining whether an output power of the elongated radiation emitting device has stabilized by successively measuring the received radiation beam at a plurality of locations of the elongated radiation emitting device, and comparing a present measurement of each of the plurality of locations of the elongated radiation beam with an immediately preceding measurement of each respective plurality of locations of the elongated radiation beam, the output power of the elongated radiation emitting device being determined to have stabilized when a difference value between two consecutive period of time measurements is less than a selected value;
• a second determining step of determining a profile flatness of the elongated radiation emitting device by comparing radiation measurement readings at a predetermined number of sample points obtained during a single certain time interval along the elongated radiation emitting device to one another;
• a third determining step of determining an overall brightness of the elongated radiation emitting device by determining whether radiation measurement readings at a predetermined number of sample points along the elongated radiation emitting device are at least equal to a selected minimum acceptable brightness threshold level;
• predicting a useful remaining life of the elongated radiation emitting device based upon past period of time determinations required for the elongated radiation emitting device to stabilize;
• and
• activating an alarm conveying a failure condition after the first determining step, the second determining step and the third determining step are performed if either the first determining step, the second determining step or the third determining step results in an undesired determination.

A method for determining a performance characteristic of an illuminating device, comprising the steps of:

• activating the illuminating device to emit radiation;
• determining a period of time required for an output level of the radiation emitted by the illuminating device to stabilize after the illuminating device is activated;
• and
• predicting a characteristic of the illuminating device based upon past period of time determinations required for the output level of the radiation emitted by the illuminating device to stabilize.

A method for determining the useability of a radiation emitting device associated with an imaging device, comprising the steps of:

• initiating an automatic diagnostic operation in which a plurality of operating parameters of the radiation emitting device are automatically determined prior to an initiation of an initial imaging operation, the initiating step comprising the steps of:
• supplying electrical power to an elongated radiation emitting device so that the elongated radiation emitting device emits radiation towards a reference strip;
• receiving a beam of radiation that is reflected from the reference strip with an imaging array;
• performing a first diagnostic operation to determine whether output power of the elongated radiation emitting device at a plurality of locations has stabilized within a predetermined period of time by obtaining a plurality of measurements of the received radiation beam at the plurality of locations along the elongated radiation emitting device, and comparing the plurality of measurements, the output power of the elongated radiation emitting device being determined to have stabilized when a difference value obtained as a result of the comparison of the plurality of measurements is less than a selected value;
• activating an alarm to convey a failure condition if it is determined that the output power of the elongated radiation emitting device has not stabilized;
• performing a second diagnostic operation to determine a profile flatness of the elongated radiation emitting device, when it is determined that the output power of the elongated radiation emitting device has stabilized, by comparing radiation measurement readings obtained at a predetermined number of sample points during a single predetermined time interval along the elongated radiation emitting device to one another, the measurement readings yielding a greatest reading and a smallest reading;
• activating the alarm to convey the failure condition if it is determined that an absolute value of a difference between the greatest reading and the smallest reading exceeds a pre-selected maximum allowable difference;
• performing a third diagnostic operation to determine overall brightness of the elongated radiation emitting device, when the absolute value does not exceed the selected maximum allowable difference, by determining whether radiation measurement readings at a predetermined number of sample points along the elongated radiation emitting device are at least equal to a selected minimum acceptable brightness threshold level;
• and
• activating the alarm to convey the failure condition if it is determined that at least one radiation measurement reading at the predetermined number of sample points along the elongated radiation emitting device is less than the selected minimum acceptable brightness threshold level;
• and
• enabling an initial imaging operation by the imaging device upon completion of the automatic diagnostic operation if the alarm is not activated, wherein a useful remaining life of the elongated radiation emitting device is predicted based upon past period of time determinations required for the elongated radiation emitting device to stabilize.