Errors in thermographic camera measurement caused by known heat sources and depth based correction

Abstract

Thermal imaging has shown to be a better tool for the quantitative measurement of temperature than single spot infrared thermometers. However, thermographic cameras can encounter errors in acquiring accurate temperature measurements in the presence of other environmental heat sources. Some of these errors arise due to the inability of the thermal camera to detect objects and features in the infrared domain. In this paper, the thermal image is registered as a stereo image from a Kinect system prior to depth-based correction. Experiments demonstrating the error are presented together with the determination of the measurement errors under prior knowledge of the thermographed scene. The proposed correction scheme improves the accuracy of the thermal image through augmentation using the Kinect system.