Patent ID: 7256818

Claim:
A method of detecting a fire, comprising: receiving a plurality of frames of video information; determining an energy indicator for each of a subset of the plurality of frames; determining whether a plurality of characteristics indicative of fire are present, said plurality of characteristics including a hotspot, flame and smoke, each of said plurality of characteristics having a corresponding predetermined pattern as a function of time, wherein a determination regarding the presence of at least one of the plurality of characteristics is made in response to the energy indicator for each of the subset of the plurality of frames corresponding to a predetermined pattern that is a function of time for said at least one characteristic, wherein said determining whether a plurality of characteristics indicative of fire are present further includes: determining a first result indicating whether a hotspot is detected; determining a second result indicating whether a flame is detected; and determining a third result indicating whether smoke is detected, each of said first result, said second result and said third result being determined independently without using any of the other results; and detecting the presence of fire in accordance with whether said plurality of characteristics indicative of fire are present using at least said first result, said second result, and said third result.