Understanding the FLIR Thermal Camera in Speos

Description

FLIR thermal cameras can capture radiation in the Long Wavelength Infrared (LWIR).

Speos thermal cameras operate in the Long Wavelength Infrared (LWIR) as they detect the electromagnetic spectrum going from 7 to 14 µm and render results in grayscale.

During simulation, many factors such as the object's inherent properties (its emissivity, temperature and reflectance) or environment properties (atmosphere humidity or simply the distance between the thermal camera and the object) can impact the camera's detection capability.

The FLIR Thermal Camera model package provided by Speos in the Optical Library is intended to create thermal maps and analyze them. For that matter, the package provides:
  • The Thermal_Camera_Editor folder that contains the FLIR Thermal Camera Editor application
  • The Thermal_Camera_Wrapper folder that contains the FLIR Thermal Camera Wrapper application
  • The Thermal_Cameras folder that contains five FLIR Camera sets

Tool Set

Speos

Speos is used to:
  • Create the scene containing sources and Camera sensors
  • Run simulations of the scene to generate the XMP Irradiance maps.

Thermal Camera Wrapper

The Thermal Camera Wrapper allows you to apply the processing from raw irradiance map to temperature map or final image:
  • Import the raw irradiance map from Speos
  • Read the post-processing parameters in a *.thermalpbcam file
  • Apply the imager pipeline (sensitivity, noise) and post-processing pipeline (Amplification, temperature conversion and FLIR AGC)
  • Export the temperature map (XMP format)
  • Export the final image in grey scale
Note: The Wrapper is compatible with the FLIR Camera model only.

Thermal Camera Editor

The Thermal Camera Editor allows you to:
  • Read the blackbox thermal camera information in the *.thermalpbcam file
  • Display in the GUI only some of the parameters from blackbox camera model
  • Edit these parameters through the GUI
  • Save new blackbox thermal camera with the updated parameters

Virtual Photometric Lab

Virtual Photometric Lab allows you to:
  • Create your set of measures on specific areas thanks to the Measures tool.
  • Apply your own measurements and specifications to see if they fail or pass.

General Workflow



  1. Generate the XMP Irradiance map. (Speos)

    The XMP Irradiance maps will be used as input of the Thermal Camera Wrapper to create the Thermal maps.

  2. Generate the Thermal maps (Thermal Camera Wrapper)

    The Thermal maps are generated out of the raw XMP Irradiance maps and according to the *.thermalpbcam file.

  3. Edit the *.thermalpbcam files (Thermal Camera Editor)

    You can modify some imager and post-processing parameters of a *.thermalpbcam file, according to your needs, to modify the generation of Thermal maps.

  4. Analyze the Thermal maps (Virtual Photometric Lab)

    Thanks to Virtual Photometric Lab, you can analyze the generated temperature map using the different tools available such as the Measures tool.