Patent ID: 7289032

Claim:
A method for determining a characteristic of a flame, comprising: monitoring a flame to detect light emitted by the flame in each of a plurality of discrete spectral ranges forming a contiguous spectral range; generating a respective voltage corresponding to an intensity of the detected light in each of the discrete spectral ranges; recording raw flame signature data for the monitored flame representing the generated voltages for each of the discrete spectral ranges over a period of time; converting the recorded raw flame signature data into refined flame signature data; and determining at least one characteristic of the flame based on the refined flame signature data; wherein the refined flame signature data includes one of (i) DC intensity data, for each of the discrete spectral ranges, representing a maximum recorded raw DC voltage, a minimum recorded raw DC voltage and an average recorded raw DC voltage, (ii) flicker intensity data, for each of the discrete spectral ranges, representing a maximum difference between amplitudes of each peak and of the immediately preceding trough in the recorded raw DC voltage, a minimum difference between amplitudes of each peak and of the immediately preceding trough in the recorded raw DC voltage and an average difference between amplitudes of each peak and of the immediately preceding trough in the recorded raw DC voltage, and (iii) flicker freguency data, for each of the discrete spectral ranges, representing a maximum freguency of flickers in the recorded raw DC voltage, a minimum freguency of flickers in the recorded raw DC voltage and an average freguency of flickers in the recorded raw DC voltage.