Patent ID: 8164061

Claim:
A universal infrared analyzer, comprising: a focal plane array; a tunable optical filter positioned proximate to the focal plane array, wherein the tunable optical filter is capable of being tuned to one of a selectable set of wavelengths of radiation; a controller in operable communication with the focal plane array and the tunable optical filter; a database of a plurality of function specific settings in operable communication with the controller, wherein the plurality of function specific settings includes settings for at least one of the functions from the group consisting of intruder detection, chemical detection, structural integrity detection, medical applications detection, and gas detection, wherein each of the plurality of function specific settings provides data to the controller to tune the tunable optical filter to one of the selectable sets of wavelengths; a database of a plurality of function specific signatures in operable communication with the controller; a user input interface, for manually selecting one of the plurality of function specific settings and one of the plurality of function specific signatures, wherein the user input interface comprises one from the group consisting of keyboards, liquid crystal displays, touch screens, and mouse, wherein the controller tunes the tunable optical filter to one of the selectable set of wavelengths of radiation based upon the selected one of the function specific settings and the focal plane array generates a signature based upon a target detected by the focal plane array; a correlator for comparing the signature to the selected one of the plurality of function specific signatures, wherein the selected function specific signatures corresponds to the selected function specific setting and the correlator is in operable communication with the focal plane array and the database of the plurality of function specific signatures, wherein the correlator provides an output indicating whether the signature corresponds to the selected one of the plurality of function specific signatures; and wherein the universal infrared analyzer does not provide a source of illumination to the target.