Patent ID: 7772539

Claim:
A system for determining one of an active status and a color of a light signal positioned adjacent to a route, said system comprising: a thermal camera configured to collect infrared spectral data of said light signal, said first camera being attached to an exterior surface of a powered system traveling along said route; a video camera configured to collect visible spectral data of said light signal, said video camera being attached to the exterior surface of the powered system; and a controller coupled to said thermal camera and said video camera, said controller being configured to determine said one of the active status and color of the light signal based on said infrared spectral data and said visible spectral data of said light signal; wherein said controller includes a memory to store a minimum active temperature required to activate the light signal, and wherein said controller is configured to determine said active status of said light signal, based upon; said infrared spectral data including a light signal temperature greater than the minimum active temperature, and said visible spectral data having an overlap ratio with said infrared spectral data which exceeds a predetermined overlap ratio stored in the memory.