Patent ID: 7422365

Claim:
A thermal imaging system for quantitative thermal mapping of a scene containing at least one target object, the system comprising: a thermal imaging device for detection of radiation emitted by the scene, the thermal imaging device comprising a focal plane array (FPA) detector having a plurality of detectors arranged in an array that includes a first subset of detectors having fewer than all of the detectors in the FPA and a remainder of other detectors; a first heat source of known temperature and emissivity, located within the scene viewed by the thermal imaging device; and a processor adapted to generate a calibrated temperature map of the scene from the data supplied by the thermal imaging device, by determining a correction based on the known temperature of the first heat source and detected radiation data from the first subset of detectors which first subset receives radiation from the first heat source while the remainder of other detectors in the FPA receives radiation from other portions of the scene at the same time, and applying the correction to detected radiation data supplied by the FPA to thereby generate the calibrated temperature map.