Patent ID: 7218222

Claim:
A space safety apparatus for detecting an intrusion within a volume of space encompassing a field of view (FOV), wherein the intrusion is a gas or vapor in the volume of space encompassing the FOV, wherein the FOV comprises: an infra-red (IR) energy reference source emitting an IR energy beam; an air path from the volume of space providing a potential gas or vapor sample to be detected and through which the IR energy beam passes; a collimating lens between the IR energy source and the air path for collimating the IR energy beam emitted by said IR energy reference source; and a focusing element for focusing the collimated IR energy beam from the air path; said space safety apparatus further comprising: a narrow band bandpass filter element for filtering the collimated IR energy beam, the IR energy beam passing through said air path prior to passing through said narrow band filter element; a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) mirror array for reflecting the narrow band IR energy beam from said narrow band bandpass filter; an IR energy detector for detecting a change in the narrow band IR energy beam reflected by said MEMS array and converting the narrow band IR energy beam to an output signal; an amplifier for amplifying the output signal from the narrow band detector; an analog to digital converter for converting the output signal from the narrow band detector from analog to digital; a processor for processing the output signal from the narrow band detector; a memory storage for storing the output signal from the narrow band detector; a wide band bandpass filter element for filtering the collimated IR energy beam, the IR energy beam passing through said air path prior to passing through said wide band filter element; a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) mirror array for reflecting the wide band IR energy beam from said wide band bandpass filter; an IR energy detector for detecting the wide band IR energy beam reflected by said MEMS array and converting the wide band IR energy beam to an output signal, said IR energy detector for detecting the wide band IR energy beam; an amplifier for amplifying the output signal from the wide band detector; an analog to digital converter for converting the output signal from the wide band detector from analog to digital; a processor for processing the output signal from the wide band detector; a memory storage for storing the output signal from the wide band detector; an IR reference enabling a reference signal to be derived by switching said MEMS mirror array between the IR Source and said IR reference; a controller for adjusting an angle of at least one mirror element of said MEMS mirror arrays; and an alarm for annunciating detection of a gas or vapor in response to a change in output signal corresponding to a change in the IR energy beam received from said narrow band detector.