Patent ID: 8436905

Claim:
A thermal imaging based system adapted for imaging infra-red radiation that is emitted by a black body, the thermal imaging based system comprising: a focal plane array (FPA) having a plurality of pixels sensitive to infra-red radiation; a lens disposed between the black body and the FPA and adapted to focus the infra-red radiation emitted by the black body in front of the lens onto the FPA behind the lens, the plurality of pixels of the FPA having sufficient infra-red sensitivity so as to detect the infra-red radiation emitted by the black body as well as infra-red radiation emitted by the lens; a shutter located between the lens and the black body, the shutter having a closed state and an open state wherein the closed state prevents the infra-red radiation emitted by the black body from reaching the FPA while allowing the infra-red radiation emitted by the lens to by detected by the FPA as a reference image signal, and the open state allows both the infra-red radiation emitted by the black body and the infra-red radiation emitted by the lens to be detected by the FPA as an open state image signal; and a signal processing module operatively coupled to the FPA, and adapted to correct the open state image signal based on the reference image signal.