Patent ID: 7064332

Claim:
A thermal imaging system for detecting defects in a structure, said system comprising: a hand-held sound source, said sound source including a housing, a handle assembly coupled to the housing, a sound transducer coupled to the housing and three stabilizing members extending from the housing, said sound source further including a spring mounted within the housing, wherein the spring pushes the transducer out of the housing, and wherein the transducer is positioned against the structure against the bias of the spring so that the three stabilizing members are positioned against the structure and the transducer provides a predetermined force against the structure; a thermal imaging camera directed towards the structure and generating thermal images of the defects in the structure; and a control unit electrically coupled to the sound source and the camera, said control unit causing the sound source to emit pulses of a sound signal at a predetermined frequency and for a predetermined duration, and causing the camera to generate sequential images of the structure, wherein the signal from the sound source causes the defects in the structure to heat up and be visible in the images generated by the camera.