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Few Optical Parameters one should know about Thermal Camera

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While thermal camera or thermal sensor has many important technical parameters which will determine its accuracy of temperature measurement, there are some optical parameters which one should know to determine its real world usage. Like a normal camera, Thermal Camera also has very important component, lens which will influence the temperature measurement. I will be trying to list and explain those optical parameters one should know or consider while selecting a thermal camera for specific application

1. FOV ( Field Of View) : This is one of the widely known or mentioned optical parameters or specification mentioned in any thermal camera. It can be considered as an window or a solid angle through which electromagnetic radiation will enter into the sensor of the thermal camera and the size of the window is the “field of view” of the camera for that distance. Now, it should be evident that, as its an angle, it will get wider and wider as it goes far from the sensor. This angle of view is dependent on focal length of the lens, longer the focal length, narrower the angle of view is and shorter the focal length, wider the angle of view would be. But the FOV is not dependent fully on the focal length of the lens, but also the sensor or detector size and its pixel pitch as well as its pixel count, both horizontally as well as vertically.
Normally, for a same pixel count, if the pixel pitch is greater, it will have greater FOV than the one with smaller pixel pitch.
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Minimum Technical Specification For Human Body Temperature Screening System

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Continuing with my previous post about “Not upto the mark”  technical specification for human body screening system in India, I thought I would try to put up specifications which are minimum technical requirement for such systems. It may not be complete and totally exhaustive list, but I think this could be good enough to start with.

  1. It should be dual camera system ie It should have both Thermal Camera and Visual Camera.  Why ? Because : Thermal camera is to measure human body ( face skin) temperature measurement and the visual camera for face detection. Face Detection and Face Recognition are two different thing altogether and should not be confused with one another. Automatic face detection helps identify the person who has high body temperature.
  2. Thermal Camera resolution must be 384X288 Pixels or higher, Why ? While Thermal Cameras with both 80X80 pixels and 160X120 Pixels may be able to detect high body temperature in a human face which is of approx 8-14CM width and 10-17CM in height ( just a general figure) with suitable length, but 384X288 Pixels will out form and offer more flexibility than 160X120 Pixels / 80X80 Pixels ones. Higher resolution Thermal camera require at least 1GBPS Ethernet which may be expensive.

    3. … Continue Reading about Minimum Technical Specification For Human Body Temperature Screening System

Fever Screening Tender Specification in India

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Recently, I came across a tender specification of which says smart thermal camera with real-time video and body temperature screening system which made me think about body temperature screening systems being sold or deployed in India.

Here is the screenshot of the tender document which outlines the specification of the “Body Temperature Screening System”

Body Temperature Screening

The specification number 1 and 2 makes sense as they are going to be useful for record keeping as well as any future analysis.

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Thermal Camera as Night Vision Camera

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Thermal camera is being increasingly used a “Night Vision” camera and rightly so. Night Vision has much wider real world usage/application then “con-contact temperature measurement”. Thermal Cameras of Thermal sensors are capable of doing both. And as for developers point of view, using thermal camera as night vision device is much simpler, and faster to manufacture or calibrate too.

When a Thermal Camera is used as a night vision device, it does not require to measure temperature. So, the temperature calibration, compensation and related processing is not required. It makes life of a Thermal Camera manufacturer or developer much easier. All it has to do is, provide corrections and produce an image as sharp as possible.

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Visual Camera in Body Temperature Detection System

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Fever Detection System
Fever Detection System

Almost all “premium version” of elevated body temperature detection system available in the market seems to have both visual and thermal camera in it. I think, main reason to put this visual camera is to identify the person without any human intervention in case he or she is detected with elevated body temperature. While, this argument may not hold true if she is wearing a mask or veil, but still it can give some desirable features to elevated body temperature measurement system

Both the Thermal Camera and the visual camera are places in such a way that their field of view ( FOV ) overlap each other so as to detect the face using visual camera while sensing the temperature using the thermal camera. The visual image will be used to detect a face, then this face area will be identified in the corresponding thermal image. Then the temperature of that area will be measured using the thermal camera. … Continue Reading about Visual Camera in Body Temperature Detection System

Thermal Camera or Thermal Sensor ?

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Since its called “Thermal Camera”, a normal person or a newbie in “thermal imaging” world, might think this equipment to be a camera. While the end result is an “image”, thermal cameras are actually sensors, which senses heat. So, most probably, “Thermal Camera” could be a misnomer while “Thermal Sensors” could be the right word instead of thermal camera.

Thermal Camera is surely made in camera style in construction as well as components. It consists of lens, a sensor as well as other parameters just like a normal camera. It differs from normal camera in two ways:- … Continue Reading about Thermal Camera or Thermal Sensor ?