Jason Earl Wolfe

US Patent:

20220260424, Aug 18, 2022

Filed:

Apr 29, 2022

Appl. No.:

17/661446

Inventors:

- Goleta CA, US
Andreas Engberg - Santa Barbara CA, US
Jason Wolfe - Santa Barbara CA, US
Derek Moran - Santa Barbara CA, US
Blake Henry - Santa Barbara CA, US
Ross Williams - Santa Barbara CA, US
Russ Mead - Santa Barbara CA, US

International Classification:

G01J 5/02
G01J 5/0806
G01J 5/20
H04N 5/225

Abstract:

An ultra-small thermal imaging core, or micro-core. The design of the micro-core may include substrates for mounting optics and electronic connectors that are thermally matched to the imaging Focal Plane Array (FPA). Test fixtures for test and adjustment that allow for operation and image acquisition of multiple cores may also be provided. Tooling may be included to position the optics to set the core focus, either by moving the lens and lens holder as one or by pushing and/or pulling the lens against a lens positioning element within the lens holder, while observing a scene. Test procedures and fixtures that allow for full temperature calibration of each individual core, as well as providing data useful for uniformity correction during operation may also be included as part of the test and manufacture of the core.

US Patent:

20200217719, Jul 9, 2020

Filed:

Jun 20, 2018

Appl. No.:

16/623751

Inventors:

- Goleta CA, US
Andreas Engberg - Santa Barbara CA, US
Jason Wolfe - Santa Barbara CA, US
Derek Moran - Santa Barbara CA, US
Blake Henry - Santa Barbara CA, US
Ross Williams - Santa Barbara CA, US
Russ Mead - Santa Barbara CA, US

International Classification:

G01J 5/02
G01J 5/08
G01J 5/20
H04N 5/225

Abstract:

An ultra-small thermal imaging core, or micro-core. The design of the micro-core may include substrates for mounting optics and electronic connectors that are thermally matched to the imaging Focal Plane Array (FPA). Test fixtures for test and adjustment that allow for operation and image acquisition of multiple cores may also be provided. Tooling may be included to position the optics to set the core focus, either by moving the lens and lens holder as one or by pushing and/or pulling the lens against a lens positioning element within the lens holder, while observing a scene. Test procedures and fixtures that allow for full temperature calibration of each individual core, as well as providing data useful for uniformity correction during operation may also be included as part of the test and manufacture of the core.

US Patent:

20200200608, Jun 25, 2020

Filed:

Mar 4, 2020

Appl. No.:

16/809387

Inventors:

- Goleta CA, US
William J. Parrish - Santa Barbara CA, US
Jason Wolfe - Santa Barbara CA, US

International Classification:

G01J 5/10

Abstract:

A thermography process for thermal imaging systems produced in quantity, including an imaging sensor and an ambient temperature sensor, that includes operations at three different places in the manufacture and actual use of the system. A temperature calibration may be performed on all units of a given design at a small number of controlled scene temperatures at one ambient temperature to produce a function that relates sensor signal to scene temperature. The function is determined for each individual unit and may be unique for each unit. Selected calibrated units may be subjected to a qualification test where they are exposed to larger number of controlled scene temperatures at a plurality of controlled ambient temperatures and the errors between the calibration derived function and the observed results and/or the actual scene temperatures at the various scene/ambient temperature combinations may be derived and put into a table that is loaded into all production units. In actual use of the imaging system, for any given actual observed signal and temperature sensor values, the corresponding scene temperature and/or error may be derived from the table and used to modify the temperature value from the calibration function.

US Patent:

20200029059, Jan 23, 2020

Filed:

Jul 31, 2018

Appl. No.:

16/051077

Inventors:

- Santa Barbara CA, US
Jason Wolfe - Santa Barbara CA, US
Ross Williams - Santa Barbara CA, US

International Classification:

H04N 9/64
H04N 5/33
H04N 9/77
G06T 5/40

Abstract:

Systems and methods for allocating display colors to thermal image intensity data acquired by thermal band photodetectors are described. The intensity data from the photodetectors, which corresponds to the scene temperature, is usually converted to a digital value falling within the range of the analog to digital conversion (ADC). The full ADC range may be divided into two or more sub-ranges. In at least one sub-range intensity values within that sub-range may be assigned display colors from a first color table utilizing one or more Histogram Equalization (HE) techniques. In at least one other sub-range, specific display values from a color table different from the first may be assigned to specific intensity values. In some embodiments, the HE assigned sub-range may be lower in intensity than the specific assigned sub-range. For a thermal imaging system including thermography, the sub-ranges may correspond to scene temperature ranges, where lower temperatures are assigned colors using HE and higher temperatures are assigned specific colors corresponding to specific temperatures. Such an arrangement is particularly applicable to thermal imaging use by firefighters because the arrangement allows them to determine temperature directly from displayed color for potentially dangerous temperatures. In some cases the sub-range may be applied to certain pixels within desired temperature ranges, and those chosen pixels may be assigned to all or part of a second color table, and in some cases the second color table may be applied to the sub-range pixels by histogram equalization. This arrangement is applicable to highlighting temperatures corresponding to objects, such as humans or animals to make these objects high contrast for search applications.

US Patent:

20190130535, May 2, 2019

Filed:

Nov 19, 2018

Appl. No.:

16/195593

Inventors:

- Goleta CA, US
William J. Parrish - Santa Barbara CA, US
Jason Wolfe - Santa Barbara CA, US

International Classification:

G06T 5/00
G06T 5/10

Abstract:

An imaging system whose Field of View FOV experiences occasional motion in relation to viewed scenes may be configured to reduce Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN) of acquired image data. FPN may be reduced by developing a pixel by pixel FPN correction term through a series of steps including blurring the image, identifying pixels to exclude from some calculations, a motion detector and an FPN updater for frames under motion and an FPN decay element for frames that are still.

US Patent:

20180180485, Jun 28, 2018

Filed:

Dec 15, 2017

Appl. No.:

15/843667

Inventors:

- Santa Barbara CA, US
William Parrish - Santa Barbara CA, US
Jason Wolfe - Santa Barbara CA, US

International Classification:

G01J 5/08
G01J 5/20
G01J 5/52
H04N 5/33
H04N 5/365

Abstract:

A thermography process for thermal imaging systems produced in quantity, including an imaging sensor and an ambient temperature sensor, that includes operations at three different places in the manufacture and actual use of the system. A temperature calibration may be performed on all units of a given design at a small number of controlled scene temperatures at one ambient temperature to produce a function that relates sensor signal to scene temperature. The function is determined for each individual unit and may be unique for each unit. Selected calibrated units may be subjected to a qualification test where they are exposed to larger number of controlled scene temperatures at a plurality of controlled ambient temperatures and the errors between the calibration derived function and the observed results and/or the actual scene temperatures at the various scene/ambient temperature combinations may be derived and put into a table that is loaded into all production units. In actual use of the imaging system, for any given actual observed signal and temperature sensor values, the corresponding scene temperature and/or error may be derived from the table and used to modify the temperature value from the calibration function.

US Patent:

20170374304, Dec 28, 2017

Filed:

Jun 21, 2017

Appl. No.:

15/629526

Inventors:

- Santa Barbara CA, US
William J. Parrish - Santa Barbara CA, US
Jason Wolfe - Santa Barbara CA, US

International Classification:

H04N 5/365
G06T 7/13
G06T 5/00
G06T 5/20
G06T 7/246
G06T 5/40
G06T 7/80

Abstract:

An imaging system whose Field of View FOV experiences occasional motion in relation to viewed scenes may be configured to reduce Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN) of acquired image data. FPN may be reduced by developing a pixel by pixel FPN correction term through a series of steps including blurring the image, identifying pixels to exclude from some calculations, a motion detector and an FPN updater for frames under motion and an FPN decay element for frames that are still.

US Patent:

20170243326, Aug 24, 2017

Filed:

Feb 17, 2017

Appl. No.:

15/436626

Inventors:

- Santa Barbara CA, US
Jason Wolfe - Santa Barbara CA, US

International Classification:

G06T 3/40
G06T 7/00
H04N 5/33

Abstract:

Imaging systems and methods are disclosed that use decimate image data to create smaller image frame size from the image size acquired from an imaging array. An imaging system includes an array of photodetectors configured to produce an array of intensity values corresponding to light intensity at the photodetectors. The imaging system can be configured to acquire a frame of intensity values, or an image frame, and reduce the size of the image frame for subsequent processing and display. The decimation process includes replacing a subframe or kernel of image date with few pixels than contained in the kernel, including replacing the pixels of the kernel with one decimated pixel. The decimated pixel values are derived from the pixels of the kernel and may also include replacement of bad pixels in the original image frame.