Patent ID: 7499836
Filing Date: 2009-03-03
Classification: G01J

Abstract:
1. A method of detecting the presence of a dynamic combustion source event of interest and acquiring and analyzing the spectral signature of the source event in order to approximate the location of the source event within a predetermined field of view, the method comprising: predetermining a set of combustion events of interest for which detection, location and identification is desired; providing a spectral analysis system comprising maintaining in the computer memory a dispersion-pattern data set associating the optical system with data indicative of the set of pre-contrived electromagnetic-energy dispersion patterns; causing the spectral analysis system to monitor a predetermined field of view by registering at the imaging-sensor array, and storing in the computer memory, at least two quasi-image-data frames temporally separated from one another by a predetermined time interval, each quasi-image-data frame having associated therewith data representing a scene within the field of view over a predetermined set of wavelengths; algorithmically subtracting a first quasi-image-data frame from a temporally-separated second quasi-image-data frame to yield a difference-data set representative of the difference in energy intensity between the first and second quasi-image-data frames at each wavelength of a selected plurality of wavelengths; executing an algorithmic detection filter that analyzes the difference-data set and declares the presence within the predetermined field of view of an event of interest and, thereby, the presence of image data representative of the event of interest in one of the first and second quasi-image-data frames, when a predetermined threshold filter value is exceeded, and regarding the quasi-image-data frame that is declared to contain data representative of the event of interest as a candidate-event-containing quasi-image-data frame, the candidate-event-containing quasi-image-data frame having associated therewith in the computer memory a registered-dispersion-pattern data set; and relative to a candidate-event-containing quasi-image-data frame, executing an event-locating algorithm that consults the dispersion-pattern data set associated with the optical system and matches and co-orientates as closely as practicable a pre-contrived electromagnetic-energy dispersion pattern with the registered-dispersion-pattern data set in order to approximate, with reference to the source-event location correlated with the matched and co-oriented pre-contrived electromagnetic-energy dispersion pattern, the location within the predetermined field of view of the object source event that emitted the electromagnetic energy from which the registered dispersion pattern was produced.