Calibration system and method to correct distortion of thermal images from in-line and rotary thermoforming machines
AssigneeRaytek Corporation
InventorAlan Young
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for compensating for geometrical distortion of a thermal image, generated by an infrared line-scanner, caused by non-uniform motion of an image object that utilizes a calibration object and interactive software to form non-rectangular zone boundaries that compensate for image distortion.
Claims8
A method for compensating for distortion in a thermal image of a moving object due to non-uniform motion of the object, with the thermal image formed by a thermal scanning system including a fixed infrared scanning device for forming images of part of an object within its field of view and with the infrared scanning device providing a signal output to a computer which executes program code to form a thermal image of the object and calculate temperature values of portions of the object, said method comprising the steps of:
- fabricating a calibrator object having thermal zone boundaries marked by a contrasting thermal imaging material;
- transporting the calibrator object across the field of view of the infrared scanning device;
- executing program code to process signal output from the infrared scanning device to form a thermal image of the object, with images of zone boundaries marked by the imaging material distorted in the image due to non-uniform motion of the calibrator object while the image is being scanned;
- executing program code to form a window over part of an image and responsive to user commands to draw an outline of a non-rectangular distorted zone and to store coordinates of the outline of the non-rectangular distorted zone;
- and
- executing program code to utilize stored coordinates of the outline of the non-rectangular distorted zone to compute temperature parameters from image points included within the outline of the distorted zone.
A computer program product, for use on a system including a digital computer, where the computer program product compensates for distortion in a thermal image of a moving object due to non-uniform motion of the object, with the thermal image formed by a thermal scanning system including a fixed infrared scanning device for forming images of part of an object within its field of view and with the infrared scanning device providing signals to a the digital computer, the computer program product comprising:
- a computer usable medium having computer readable program code physically embodied therein, said computer program product further comprising:
- computer readable program code for causing the computer to form a thermal image of a calibration object having thermal zones marked by a contrasting thermal imaging material and transported across the field of view of the infrared scanning device, with the thermal image of the zone boundaries distorted due to non-uniform motion of the calibration object across the field of view of the infrared scanning device;
- computer readable program code for causing the computer to form a window over part of an image and responsive to user commands to draw an outline of a non-rectangular distorted zone and to store coordinates of the outline of the distorted zone;
- and
- computer readable program code for causing the computer to utilize stored coordinates of the outline of the non-rectangular distorted zone to compute temperature parameters from image points included within the outline of the distorted zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.