초록 ▼

A visible light (VL) and infrared (IR) combined image camera with a laser pointer. The laser pointer may be used for marking a hot spot on an object or for focusing an IR lens of a camera on an object. The laser pointer may be adjacent to the VL optics and offset from the IR optics. The VL sensor ar

A visible light (VL) and infrared (IR) combined image camera with a laser pointer. The laser pointer may be used for marking a hot spot on an object or for focusing an IR lens of a camera on an object. The laser pointer may be adjacent to the VL optics and offset from the IR optics. The VL sensor array may be much larger than the IR sensor array and the camera may also display the pixels of IR data with a much larger instantaneous field of view than the VL pixels. The camera may also provide audible alarms where the alarm is emitted with a tone of variable output to indicate the relative level of the alarm.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A method for marking a hot spot on an object, the hot spot being identified by infrared (IR) imaging, and the method comprising: viewing the hot spot on a blended image of the object being shown on a display of the camera, the blended image being an IR image of the object, captured through an IR

1. A method for marking a hot spot on an object, the hot spot being identified by infrared (IR) imaging, and the method comprising: viewing the hot spot on a blended image of the object being shown on a display of the camera, the blended image being an IR image of the object, captured through an IR lens, overlaid upon a visible light (VL) image of the object, captured through a VL lens of the camera, the VL lens being located on the camera with respect to the IR lens, such that an optical axis of the VL lens is offset from, and approximately parallel with, an optical axis of the IR lens to create a parallax error;registering the IR image of the object and the VL image of the object to correct the parallax error; andviewing a marking spot on the displayed blended image, the marking spot being in the visible light spectrum and projected by a pointer of the camera onto the object, the pointer being located on the camera in a fixed position to project the marking spot along a trajectory that is approximately equal to the optical axis of the VL lens; andre-positioning the pointer to project the marking spot onto the hot spot of the object by moving the camera while monitoring a movement of the marking spot on the displayed blended image until a location of the marking spot coincides with a position of the hot spot on the displayed blended image. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the registering the IR image of the object and the VL image of the object comprises focusing the IR lens. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein focusing the IR lens comprises: viewing the marking spot on the display along with one of: the blended image of the object and the VL image only of the object;viewing a computer-generated reference mark on the display along with the marking spot, the reference mark being located on the display according to a measured position of the IR lens; androtating a focus ring to move the IR lens, while viewing the movement of the reference mark on the display, until a position of the reference mark coincides with a position of the marking spot. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the position of the IR lens is measured via a Hall effect sensor of the camera. 5. A method for focusing an infrared (IR) lens of a camera on an object, the method comprising: viewing an image of a marking spot, captured by the camera, on a display of the camera, the image of the marking spot being displayed along with an image of the object, captured by the camera, the marking spot being in the visible light spectrum and projected by a pointer of the camera, and the pointer being located on the camera in a fixed position to project the marking spot along a trajectory that is offset from, and approximately parallel with an optical axis of the IR lens;viewing a computer-generated reference mark on the display along with the image of the marking spot, the reference mark being located on the display according to a measured position of the IR lens; androtating a focus ring to move the IR lens, while viewing the movement of the reference mark on the display, until a position of the reference mark coincides with a position of the image of the marking spot. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein: the image of the marking spot is an actual VL image of the marking spot captured through a VL lens of the camera; andthe image of the object is a VL image captured through the VL lens. 7. The method of claim 5, wherein: the image of the marking spot is an actual VL image of the marking spot captured through a VL lens of the camera; andthe image of the object is a blended image of the object, the blended image comprising an IR image of the object, captured through the IR lens, overlaid upon, and registered with, the visible light (VL) image of the object. 8. The method of claim 5, wherein the position of the IR lens is measured via a Hall effect sensor assembly of the camera. 9. A camera comprising: a visible light (VL) module including a VL lens and a VL sensor array aligned along a first axis;an infrared (IR) module including an IR lens, an IR sensor array and a focus ring aligned along a second axis, the second axis being offset from, and approximately parallel with, the first axis;a processor being programmed to produce a blended image of an object, the blended image comprising an infrared (IR) image of the object, captured by the IR module, overlaid upon, and registered with, a visible light (VL) image of the object, captured by the VL module;a pointer for projecting a marking spot from the camera onto the object, the pointer being located on the camera, in a fixed position, to project the marking spot along a trajectory, the trajectory being approximately equal to the first axis, and the marking spot being in the visible light spectrum; anda display adapted to display the blended image and a VL image of the marking spot together. 10. The camera of claim 9, wherein the processor is further programmed to generate a reference mark on the display, the reference mark being located on the display according to a measured position of the IR lens and the reference mark being moveable in conjunction with movement of the IR lens, via the focusing ring. 11. The camera of claim 10, further comprising a Hall effect sensor assembly to measure the position of the IR lens. 12. A method of focusing an infrared (IR) camera on a target, the camera having an IR lens with an optical axis and an adjustable optical focus position, the camera having a visible light (VL) lens and a VL sensor, a display for viewing images captured by the camera, and a laser pointer spaced from the IR lens and generating a laser beam in the visible light spectrum, the method comprising: projecting the laser beam via the laser pointer along a trajectory generally parallel to the optical axis of the IR lens;pointing the camera toward the target such that the laser beam projects a laser spot on the target;viewing, via the display, images of the laser spot and the object captured by the VL sensor;generating a reference associated with a position on the display; andadjusting the focus position of the IR lens based on the position of the laser spot relative to the reference. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the reference is a computer-generated laser spot reference mark. 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the reference indicates the location of the laser spot in a properly focused infrared image. 15. The method of claim 12, wherein the display displays the reference. 16. The method of claim 12, wherein the reference mark moves as the focus position of the IR lens is adjusted. 17. The method of claim 12, wherein the reference is coincident with the image of the laser spot when the focus position of IR lens is adjusted to a focused position on the target. 18. A method of displaying visible-light (VL) images and infrared (IR) images on a camera, the camera having a VL lens with a VL sensor, an IR lens with an IR sensor, a laser pointer, and a display, the VL lens and the IR lens being located on the camera such that an optical axis of the VL lens is offset from, and generally parallel to, an optical axis of the IR lens so the VL sensor and the IR sensor sense a VL image and an IR image, respectively, of a target scene from different points of view causing a parallax error, the laser pointer spaced from the IR lens and generating a laser beam in the visible light spectrum, the method comprising: projecting the laser beam via the laser pointer along a trajectory generally parallel to the optical axis of the IR lens;pointing the camera toward a target such that the laser beam projects a laser spot on the target;viewing, via the display, images of the laser spot and the object captured by the camera;generating a reference associated with a position on the display;correcting the parallax error based on the position in the display of the laser spot relative to the reference; anddisplaying on the display at least a portion of the VL image in register with at least a portion of the IR image. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the IR lens has an adjustable optical focus position, and further comprising adjusting the focus position of the IR lens based on the position of the laser spot on the display relative to the reference. 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the reference mark moves as the focus position of the IR lens is adjusted. 21. The method of claim 20, wherein the reference is coincident with the image of the laser spot when the focus position of IR lens is adjusted to a focused position on the target. 22. The method of claim 18, wherein the reference indicates the location of the laser spot in a focused infrared image. 23. The method of claim 18, wherein the reference is a computer-generated laser spot reference mark. 24. The method of claim 18, wherein the display displays the reference.