Patent ID: 8400504

Claim:
A system for contamination monitoring of high voltage insulators, comprising: means for visually monitoring a high voltage insulator with a salt deposit; means for transmitting a digitized visual image of the high voltage insulator and the salt deposit; means for receiving the digitized visual image; means for extracting a set of visual eigenvalues from the digitized visual image, the set of visual eigenvalues representing visual indicators of salt deposit contaminants; computer readable memory, a database of equivalent salt deposit density eigenvalues being stored therein, the database includes visual eigenvalues with known contaminant levels, wherein a pre-selected threshold value of equivalent salt deposit density being stored in the memory; means for directly comparing the set of visual, real-time eigenvalues with the database of equivalent salt deposit density eigenvalues stored in the computer readable memory; means for calculating an equivalent salt deposit density level formed on the high voltage insulator based upon the direct comparison of the set of visual eigenvalues with the database of equivalent salt deposit density eigenvalues stored in the computer readable memory; and means for transmitting an alarm signal when the calculated equivalent salt deposit density level formed on the high voltage insulator is greater than the pre-selected threshold value of equivalent salt deposit density.