System and method for automatic visual thermal events in a maritime environment

Abstract

This invention provides a system and method to detect a maritime visual thermal event(s) for carried vehicles, cargo, marine engines, and machinery that acquires images with a thermal camera and also uses a maritime visual fire precursor events (smoke) based on images of a conventional camera and a computer vision algorithm that is executed on a processor. One precursor is a detectable thermal event where the surface temperature of a ship-based vehicle, cargo, engine, or machinery increases in temperature by a few degrees as recorded by a thermal camera. A second alternate precursor is the appearance of visible compact dense smoke that can be imaged by a conventional visible light camera. The system can be integrated with the existing installed hardware, operation and processes of current systems and methods for maritime event detection with appropriate thermal cameras and data transmission components, at key locations within the ship.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for automatically detecting a thermal event in a commercial maritime vessel as part of an automated visual event detection system comprising:
 at least one thermal camera mounted in an area of interest for thermal events on a maritime vessel;   at least one processor adapted to receive thermal image data over a local network from the at least one camera and generate thermal event information relative to the data;   a data store associated with the processor that receives thermal image data from the thermal camera of an imaged scene on the vessel, the data store providing live thermal images of the scene and storing reference images of the scene associated with a plurality of conditions; and   a thermal event determination process that periodically compares one or more reference image(s) of the area to a set of the conditions in one or more acquired current thermal image(s) of the area by the at least one thermal camera, and determines therefrom whether a thermal event condition is present based upon the acquired current thermal images.   
     
     
         2 . The system as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising a communication link that transmits the thermal event information from the processor to a land-based remote computer system that stores, analyzes and displays the thermal event information. 
     
     
         3 . The system as set forth in  claim 2 , further comprising a communication link to communicate the thermal event information defining a reduced bandwidth, wherein the information is transmitted in an order as part of a hierarchy of even information based upon significance thereof. 
     
     
         4 . The system as set forth in  claim 3 , further comprising a storage arrangement that stores the thermal event information, including a time and a duration of the thermal event in a land-based database on shore or in a cloud data storage. 
     
     
         5 . The system as set forth in  claim 4 , wherein the land-based remote computer system performs thermal event detection analytics aggregating results over time by an individual vessel and by a fleet of vessels. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the thermal camera images at least one of a carried vehicle, cargo, marine engine or machinery, and the thermal camera provides at least two thermal images of the carried vehicle, cargo, marine engine or machinery, respectively, where the images are acquired at two different times using the thermal camera from the same vantage point. 
     
     
         7 . The system as set forth in  claim 6 , wherein each thermal image is divided into temperature measurement zones that are analyzed separately for change in temperature in a plurality of thermal images by the processor. 
     
     
         8 . The system as set forth in  claim 7 , further comprising a tracking process that aligns the temperature measurement zone in a first of the plurality of thermal images to a second thermal images. 
     
     
         9 . The system as set forth in  claim 8 , wherein the tracking process includes an alignment process that chooses from at least one of a plurality of alignment methods. 
     
     
         10 . The system as set forth in  claim 8 , further comprising a comparison process that compares the two aligned temperature measurement zones using a minimum criteria for temperature or change in temperature consisting of both a minimum contiguous area and a minimum temperature or change in temperature. 
     
     
         11 . The system as set forth in  claim 10 , further comprising a determination process that converts a result of the comparison process into a visual alert that is reported to a user. 
     
     
         12 . The system as set for the in  claim 1  wherein the processor receives visual event information of compact smoke from images acquired by at least one visual camera of at least one of carried vehicles, cargo, marine engines and machinery and determines presence of compact smoke based upon predetermined characteristics in one or more of the images. 
     
     
         13 . The system as set forth in  claim 12  wherein the predetermined characteristics include a time of the determined presence and a duration of the determined presence of compact smoke in at least two of the images. 
     
     
         14 . The system as set forth in  claim 13 , further comprising a communication link that transmits the visual event information of compact smoke from the processor to a land-based remote computer system that stores, analyzes and displays the visual event information of compact smoke. 
     
     
         15 . The system as set forth in  claim 14 , further comprising an attention process that defines an attention zone in the image to search for the compact smoke. 
     
     
         16 . The system as set forth in  claim 15 , wherein the processor includes at least one of a conventional computer vision process and a deep learning computer vision process that detects the compact smoke in each of the images, and a comparison process that uses results of the at least one of the conventional computer vision process and the deep learning computer vision process computer vision method, in combination with attention process, to validate the detection of the compact smoke. 
     
     
         17 . The system as set forth in  claim 16 , further comprising a determination process that uses respective detection of the compact smoke from a two or more images to provide a visual alert of the compact smoke to a user. 
     
     
         18 . A method for automatically detecting a thermal event in a commercial maritime vessel as part of an automated visual event detection system comprising the steps of:
 providing at least one thermal camera that images an area of interest for thermal events on a maritime vessel;   receiving, with at least one processor, thermal image data over a local network from the at least one camera and generate thermal event information relative to the data;   receiving, at a data store associated with the processor, thermal image data from the thermal camera of an imaged scene on the vessel, the data store providing live thermal images of the scene and storing reference images of the scene associated with a plurality of conditions; and   determining the thermal event by periodically comparing one or more reference image(s) of the area to a set of the conditions in one or more acquired current thermal image(s) of the area by the at least one thermal camera, and determining therefrom whether a thermal event condition is present based upon the acquired current thermal images.   
     
     
         19 . The method as set forth in  claim 18 , further comprising, transmitting, over a communication link, the thermal event information from the processor to a land-based remote computer system that stores, analyzes and displays the thermal event information, and storing the thermal event information, including a time and a duration of the thermal event in a land-based database on shore or in a cloud data storage. 
     
     
         20 . The method as set forth in  claim 19 , further comprising, performing, with the land-based remote computer system, thermal event detection analytics aggregating results over time by an individual vessel and by a fleet of vessels. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising, imaging by the thermal camera, at least one of a carried vehicle, cargo, marine engine or machinery, and providing, by the thermal camera, at least two thermal images of the carried vehicle, cargo, marine engine or machinery, respectively, where the images are acquired at two different times using the thermal camera from the same vantage point. 
     
     
         22 . The method as set forth in  claim 21 , further comprising, dividing each thermal image into temperature measurement zones, and separately analyzing the temperature measurement zones for change in temperature in a plurality of thermal images. 
     
     
         23 . The method as set for the in  claim 18 , further comprising, receiving b the processor, visual event information of compact smoke from images acquired by at least one visual camera of at least one of carried vehicles, cargo, marine engines and machinery and determining presence of compact smoke based upon predetermined characteristics in one or more of the images.