Patent ID: 7189970

Claim:
A gas imaging system for imaging a scene of interest which may include a plume of a gas, the imaging of the plume being dependent upon an electromagnetic wavelength absorption characteristic of the gas, the gas imaging system comprising: a bi-spectral selector assembly for providing separate first and second paths for transmittal of electromagnetic energies emanating from the scene of interest; a first narrow band pass filter in the first path for passing electromagnetic energy of a first wavelength corresponding to an electromagnetic wavelength absorption characteristic of said gas to the substantial exclusion of other electromagnetic energy; a second narrow bend pass filter in the second path for passing electromagnetic energy of a second wavelength in proximity of the first wavelength and to the substantial exclusion of electromagnetic energy passed by the first narrow band pass filter; an illuminating device for flooding the scene of interest with electromagnetic energy of wavelengths corresponding to at least the pass band wavelengths of the first and second narrow pass band filters; an imager for capturing first and second image data of the scene of interest as represented by electromagnetic energies having traversed the first and second narrow band filters respectively, and, a processor in data communication with the imager for correlating and processing the first and the second image data, and in dependence thereupon providing displayable data including an indication of said plume of gas.