Fire Suppression

Argus Thermal Imaging Cameras

Better Image Quality

Digital Signal Processing

Raw Image

Processed Image

The raw image from a microbolometer is very poor. Image quality comes from:

• Image enhancement techniques
• Displaying of image techniques
• Quality of LCD
• Lens design

Argus (e2v) has developed custom algorithms to produce excellent images out of the clutter. As you can see from the pictures below, there is a noticeable difference with the excellent filtering done by Argus to clean up the digital signals and provide a clearer image. Competitors purchasing their TIC Cores from OEMs have no direct control over what is done by the OEM to process the image.

Gain / Offset Correction

• Each pixel has a different sensitivity
• Pixels are calibrated to produce usable image
• The characterisation determines the cameras dynamic range
• Performance maintained by cameras own recalibration

Dead Pixel Correction

Microbolometers often have a number of ‘dead’ pixels which cannot be corrected by normal gain and offset correction. This can be as high as 5% of the image. With Argus’ custom algorithms, they “could” have up to 54% dead pixels without the user seeing a major difference.

• Detectors often have missing pixel
• Pixel substitution eliminates dead pixels
• Averaging performed on dead pixel to produce a pixel

Image Filtering

• Spatial Filtering – sharpens the image.
• Temporal Filtering – reduces the “noise” on the image.

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