Compact thermal camera

Claim 1

A self-contained infrared camera including a camera housing for enclosing and supporting all components for capturing and displaying a two dimensional infrared image of a scene which emits thermal radiation, the self-contained infrared camera comprising: a focusing lens rigidly attached to a camera housing for transmitting infrared radiation therethrough and focusing a two dimensional infrared image of said scene at an image focal plane perpendicular to an optical axis of said focusing lens; thermoelectric sensor array assembly means including a plurality of linearly arranged thermoelectric sensors, S m , aligned with a sensor reference axis passing through said plurality of sensors, each of said plurality of thermoelectric sensors being capable of providing raw infrared sensor information, R m , in response to sensed infrared radiation impinging thereon, and where M is the number of said plurality of linearly arranged thermoelectric sensors and where "m" designates the m th position along said sensor reference axis; support means for rigidly supporting said linear thermoelectric sensor array assembly means; linear scanning means, responsive to a command signal, for controllably moving said support means to discrete scan positions, P n , along a reference scan axis perpendicular to said optical axis, said support means coupled to and arranged relative to said scanning means such that said sensor reference axis is substantially perpendicular to said reference scan axis and said optical axis, where "n" represents the n th position along said reference scan axis, and where said linear scanning means is capable of moving said plurality of thermoelectric sensors in alignment with said focal plane so as to be responsive to said infrared image; storage means for storing unique thermoelectric sensor calibration information, C mn , for each one of said sensors, S m , and corresponding discrete scan positions, P n , where said unique sensor calibration information is related to unique raw infrared sensor information of each of said plurality of said thermoelectric sensors at said discrete scan positions in response to known infrared radiation passing through said focusing lens and impinging thereon; signal processing means for, providing said command signal such that said scanning means controllably moves said support means to successive ones of said discrete scan positions, P n , for a selected measurement time, such that at least some of said plurality of sensors, S m , pass through the field of view of said infrared image in the direction of said scan axis, and provide said raw infrared sensor information for each discrete scan position, R mn , in response to any infrared radiation impinging thereon, where R mn represents said raw infrared sensor information for the m th thermoelectric sensor at the n th discrete scan position, and deriving corrected infrared sensor information, Q mn , for each of said plurality of thermoelectric sensors, S m , at each of said discrete scan positions, P n , as a function of corresponding ones of said raw infrared sensor information, R mn , and said thermoelectric sensor calibration information, C mn , and said corrected infrared sensor information, Q mn , represents corrected raw infrared information associated with the m th thermoelectric sensor at the n th discrete scan position; and display means rigidly attached to said camera body for displaying an 2 dimensional visual image, M×N, representation of said corrected infrared sensor information, Q mn , so as to provide a visual representation of said infrared image, where said visual image has one axis which represents successive discrete scan positions, and another display axis which represents said sensor reference axis.