Radiant energy – Infrared-to-visible imaging
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-11
2001-07-03
Epps, Georgia (Department: 2873)
Radiant energy
Infrared-to-visible imaging
C250S332000, C250S339040, C348S164000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06255650
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to hazard-avoidance and blind vision equipment for use in extreme temperatures. More particularly, it concerns a self-contained, portable, easily deployed, helmet-mounted thermal or IR imaging system capable of unobtrusively expanding the view of users such as fire fighters by providing a head-up IR detecting and imaging of a scene in front of a user, displaying an image that eliminates or sees through obscurants such as dark, smoke and particulate that may otherwise blind the user.
BACKGROUND ART
Fire fighting is extremely hazardous and demanding because of extreme temperatures and obscurants that can blind or disable a fire fighter from locating the fire's source or human beings at risk within a burning building. When there are no visible flames, e.g. when alcohol, hydrogen, hydrocarbons, etc. burn, there can be lethally high temperatures caused by gases that burn without visible ignition or flaming. Whether there are visible or invisible flames, nevertheless there can be dense smoke or airborne particulate that makes normal vision impossible. At night or in dark locations, even without extremely high temperatures and even without obscurants, vision is essential to containing a fire or saving a life.
Conventionally, IR vision subsystems for fire fighters have been bulky and integrated with other fire fighting protective equipment worn by fire fighters. They also typically have required an umbilical cord to equipment worn on the body of the fire fighter. Typically, IR equipment is connected with protective body gear referred to herein as a bunker suit typically including or augmented by self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA).
Other vision systems for fire detection are not designed for hands-free operation as is required of a system used by firefighters that must enter the scene of the fire. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,422,484 and 5,726,632, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose various hand-held or pedestal-mounted flame sensors.
So-called night vision systems relying on IR detection and imaging often are useless in the presence within the detector's field of view of such extreme temperatures that the location of a human being or animal, for example, in a burning building goes undetected by a display phenomenon called blooming whereby a high-temperature gas cloud is represented by a color, e.g. white, that tends to wash out critical detail such as a low-temperature human form represented in another area of the display by a different gray scale. Effectively, the high-temperature cloud within view of the IR detector bleaches out needed detail in another area of the display, such as that of a human form. For example, the video systems of U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,827, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, do not address these problems unique to the firefighting and rescue fields.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
A head-up display, an IR camera and associated electronics including power are integrated into portable, self-contained, wrap-around, face-worn vision-enhancement apparatus useful in environments of dense air-borne particulate and thermal extremes such as encountered in fire fighting situations, in accordance with the invention. Reflective and opaque expanses or lenses are provided in front of a user's eyes at approximately eye level for IR vision display and blinding purposes, respectively, to produce a clear bright picture or image representing a detected and imaged scene viewed by the camera otherwise obscured by darkness or obscurants. The IR camera is integral with the wrap-around system along with a self-contained power supply so that the system is portable and requires no umbilical cord or other external connections. The imager is preferably an uncooled focal plane array. Associated imaging, storing, processing and displaying electronics are cooled in the extreme thermal environment using an integral plural phase heatsink, to protect elements of the apparatus from environmental heat.
The apparatus is separate from, but compatible with, helmets and SCBA and attire worn by the user so that it can easily be installed and removed by an individual user. Extended hands-free operation is provided in a lightweight package providing enhanced vision via color-coded temperature banding for display purposes, the color coding being performed in microprocessor-based firmware that forms part of the electronics. The apparatus may be temporarily affixed via a clip and strap to the brim of a helmet and may be easily shifted on the user's face from its normal night-vision position to a temporary stowed position in front of the forehead whereby the user has virtually unobstructed binocular vision. The intended use of the apparatus is for firefighting and fire rescue, but it is believed to have application in other rescue and adverse conditions, associated with vehicle accidents, mining accidents, and combat.
Objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood after consideration of the drawings and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment which follows.
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Burke Michael W.
Evans Stewart W.
Foster Scott A.
Krivoy Raul
Rae John R.
Epps Georgia
Flir Systems Inc.
Hanig Richard
Kolisch Hartwell Dickinson & McCormack & Heuser
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