Thermograph with computer display

Claim 1

An apparatus for detecting and displaying a thermograph of an area of study comprising: (a) a hand-held scanner carriage having a plurality of spaced infrared sensors arranged in a single row and pointed in the same direction, (b) means for selecting and digitizing the analog inputs of each infrared sensor at spaced time intervals to produce a row of digitized data, (c) means for logging the row of digitized data in a two-dimensional data matrix wherein the first dimension of the data matrix is sensor position upon the scanner carriage and the second dimension of the data matrix is time as the carriage is being continuously drawn over the area of study, and (d) means for displaying a thermograph comprising a representation of the two-dimensional data matrix.

Claim 2

An apparatus for detecting and displaying a thermograph of an area of study comprising: (a) a hand-held scanner carriage having a plurality of spaced infrared sensors arranged in a single row and pointed in the same direction, (b) means for selecting and digitizing the analog inputs of each infrared sensor at spaced time intervals to produce a row of digitized data, (c) means for logging the row of digitized data in a two-dimensional data matrix wherein the first dimension of the data matrix is sensor position upon the scanner carriage and the second dimension of the data matrix is time as the carriage is being continuously drawn over the area of study, and (d) means for displaying a thermograph comprising a representation of the two-dimensional data matrix.

Claim 5

An apparatus for infrared thermography and diagnosis of an area of the human anatomy comprising: (a) a microcomputer having a central processing unit, main memory, data bus, control bus, and address bus, (b) an analog input board for sequentially digitizing a plurality of analog inputs and for passing the digitized data to the data bus of the microcomputer, (c) a hand-held paddle for supporting a plurality of infrared sensors spaced along an axis, said sensors providing the analog inputs to the analog input board, wherein said paddle can be drawn over the area of the anatomy that is of interest in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axis of the spaced sensors, (d) a device for mass data storage associated with said microcomputer, (e) a display means associated with said microcomputer, (f) said main memory having stored therein (i) a task for preparing a file on the mass storage memory device for data storage, (ii) a task for capturing a matrix of digitized data as the hand-held paddle is drawn over the surface to be diagnosed in which columns of the matrix are gathered by one of said sensors and rows of the matrix are gathered by all of said sensors, (iii) a task for displaying data captured in the matrix of digitized data on the display means, and (iv) a task for saving the matrix of digitized data in a file on the mass storage device.

Claim 6

An apparatus for infrared thermography and diagnosis of an area of the human anatomy comprising: (a) a microcomputer having a central processing unit, main memory, data bus, control bus, and address bus, (b) an analog input board for sequentially digitizing a plurality of analog inputs and for passing the digitized data to the data bus of the microcomputer, (c) a hand-held paddle for supporting a plurality of infrared sensors spaced along an axis, said sensors providing the analog inputs to the analog input board, wherein said paddle can be drawn over the area of the anatomy that is of interest in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axis of the spaced sensors, (d) a device for mass data storage associated with said microcomputer, (e) a display means associated with said microcomputer, (f) said main memory having stored therein (i) a task for preparing a file on the mass storage memory device for data storage, (ii) a task for capturing a matrix of digitized data as the hand-held paddle is drawn over the surface to be diagnosed in which columns of the matrix are gathered by one of said sensors and rows of the matrix are gathered by all of said sensors, (iii) a task for displaying data captured in the matrix of digitized data on the display means, and (iv) a task for saving the matrix of digitized data in a file on the mass storage device.

Claim 12

An apparatus for infrared thermography and diagnosis of an area of the human anatomy comprising: (a) a microcomputer having a central processing unit, main memory, data bus, control bus, and address bus, (b) an analog input board for sequentially digitizing a plurality of analog inputs and for passing the digitized data to the data bus of the microcomputer, said analog input board comprises a cache memory and a counter which outputs a multi-bit digital signal automatically to poll the analog inputs and to select address locations in the cache memory for saving digitized data corresponding to the polled input, (c) a hand-held paddle for supporting a plurality of infrared sensors spaced along an axis, said sensors providing the analog inputs to the analog input board, wherein said paddle can be drawn over the area of the anatomy that is of interest in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axis of the spaced sensors, (d) a device for mass data storage associated with said microcomputer. (e) a display means associated with said microcomputer, (f) said main memory having stored therein (i) a task for preparing a file on the mass storage memory device for data storage, (ii) a task for capturing a matrix of digitized data as the hand-held paddle is drawn over the surface to be diagnosed in which columns of the matrix are gathered by one of said sensors and rows of the matrix are gathered by all of said sensors, (iii) a task for displaying data captured in the matrix of digitized data on the display means, and (iv) a task for saving the matrix of digitized data in a file on the mass storage device.

Claim 13

An apparatus for infrared thermography and diagnosis of an area of the human anatomy comprising: (a) a microcomputer having a central processing unit, main memory, data bus, control bus, and address bus, (b) an analog input board for sequentially digitizing a plurality of analog inputs and for passing the digitized data to the data bus of the microcomputer, said analog input board comprises a cache memory and a counter which outputs a multi-bit digital signal automatically to poll the analog inputs and to select address locations in the cache memory for saving digitized data corresponding to the polled input, (c) a hand-held paddle for supporting a plurality of infrared sensors spaced along an axis, said sensors providing the analog inputs to the analog input board, wherein said paddle can be drawn over the area of the anatomy that is of interest in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axis of the spaced sensors, (d) a device for mass data storage associated with said microcomputer. (e) a display means associated with said microcomputer, (f) said main memory having stored therein (i) a task for preparing a file on the mass storage memory device for data storage, (ii) a task for capturing a matrix of digitized data as the hand-held paddle is drawn over the surface to be diagnosed in which columns of the matrix are gathered by one of said sensors and rows of the matrix are gathered by all of said sensors, (iii) a task for displaying data captured in the matrix of digitized data on the display means, and (iv) a task for saving the matrix of digitized data in a file on the mass storage device.