Designing and Manufacturing of Heat - Color Electronic Diagnostic (IRT) Sensor with Infrared Monitor

Subject Areas : International Journal of Smart Electrical Engineering

Faramarz Fadaee ¹ , Sharifeh Shahi ² , Mohammad Reza Amini ³ , Sasan Soudi ⁴ , Bahareh Khaksar Jalali ⁵

1 - Department of Electrical Engineering, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.
2 - Laser and Biophotonics in Biotechnologies Research Center, Isfahan (Khorasgan) branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Isfahan (Khorasgan) branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.
3 - Department of Electrical Engineering, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
4 - Department of Medical Engineering, Faculty of Health and Medical Engineering, Tehran Medical Sciences Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
5 - Laser and Biophotonics in Biotechnologies Research Center, Isfahan (Khorasgan) branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.

Received: 2021-09-29 Accepted : 2021-10-29 Published : 2021-11-01

Keywords: infrared thermography, LCD monitor, Micro - ARM, Passive Infrared sensor,

Abstract :

Nowadays, with the advancement of new knowledge and technologies, and also by use of modern and advanced equipment in order to upgrade living standards and industrial development has become very considerable. The presence of an infrared-sensitive detector in an infrared camera enables the infrared beam to be converted into an electrical signal and provides information about the body's thermal conditions to the user. Therefore, in the present study, the design and manufacture of an Infrared Thermometer-based diagnostic sensor have been investigated. The designed device is capable of detecting human or any movement from 2 to 5 meters using two unit of non-contact Passive infrared sensor. In addition, the device has Negative Temperature Coefficient heat resistors, controlling the temperature in convoluted way every second, and displaying the temperature measurement in color and numerically on the liquid crystal display monitor. Micro - Automated Remote Manipulator is designed in C++ language and its algorithms are programmed with Keil software.

Full-Text:



Designing and Manufacturing of Heat - Color Electronic Diagnostic (IRT) Sensor with Infrared Monitor

 

Faramarz Fadaee1, Sharifeh Shahi2,3,*, Mohammad Reza Amini1, Sasan Soudi4, Bahareh Khaksar Jalali2

 

1.       Department of Electrical Engineering, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.

 

2.       Laser and Biophotonics in Biotechnologies Research Center, Isfahan (Khorasgan) branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.

 

3.       Department of Biomedical Engineering, Isfahan (Khorasgan) branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.

 

4.       Department of Medical Engineering Faculty of Health and Medical Engineering Tehran Medical Sciences Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

  

* [e-mail]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract:

Nowadays, with the advancement of new knowledge and technologies, and also by use of modern and advanced equipment in order to upgrade living standards and industrial development has become very considerable. The presence of an infrared-sensitive detector in an infrared camera enables the infrared beam to be converted into an electrical signal and provides information about the body's thermal conditions to the user. Therefore, in the present study, the design and manufacture of an Infrared Thermometer-based diagnostic sensor have been investigated. The designed device is capable of detecting human or any movement from 2 to 5 meters using two unit of non-contact Passive infrared sensor. In addition, the device has Negative Temperature Coefficient heat resistors, controlling the temperature in convoluted way every second, and displaying the temperature measurement in color and numerically on the liquid crystal display monitor. Micro - Automated Remote Manipulator is designed in C++ language and its algorithms are programmed with Keil software. 

Keywords:

InfraRed Thermography, LCD monitor, Micro - ARM, Passive Infrared sensor

Introduction:

Thermal imaging or thermography is a safe and non-contact method for estimating the temperature of different parts of the materials, which the heat generated due to temperature dispersion by the matter, is analyzed by image processing in the diagnostic sensor part of infrared cameras in videos and monitors. In 1975, thermal photography entered a new phase in terms of manufacturing technology and application technique, with the reduction of camera weight and requirements. In the 1980s and 1990s, the use of highly sensitive heat detectors and sensors, also the use of computers and images recording power had a lot of progress. The development of intelligent networks and testing of electrical equipment, as well as the development of automatic monitoring and detection by designing and manufacturing infrared thermal diagnostic sensors along with the growth of digital imaging and processing technology have been very significant in recent years [1]-[2]. Briefly, infrared camera is a device that produces an image by analyzing and measuring infrared rays. While common camera produces an image using a visible light measurement. The first massive infrared cameras depended on a liquid nitrogen cooling system, Not only was it difficult to use, but also it could only be used horizontally. Today's cameras are small and do not require a cooling system and can be used in any situation [3]-[4]. Imaging with this kind of current popular cameras are used in various fields, some of which are mentioned in Table (1).

 

 

 

Table 1: Examples of imaging applications with infrared sensors

Row	Fields	Description
1	Military field	In the field of missiles, infrared radar, night vision, infrared detection is used to create a sniper position detection system with a combination of shooting [5].
2	Electric field	Monitoring of electrical equipment [6], development of intelligent networks and testing of power electrical equipment can be used [1]-[2].
3	Construction	Detection of location and degree of defect in the building [7]-[8], Energy saving, non-destructive construction and monitoring of the drying process of the outer wall of the building [9].
4	Agriculture and Forestry	It is used to study and analyze soil composition and has a significant impact on crop growth, water planning and wheat yield forecasting [10]. It is also used to determine irrigation time, forecast and detect unhealthy fruits and vegetables, detect microbial spoilage, assess the accuracy of young seeds and seedlings, identify damage to agricultural machinery, detect foreign matter in crops and separate them [11].
5	Foodstuffs	It is used to evaluate the quality of food processing and food safety [12].
6	Automobile industry	In the Automobile industry, infrared pedestrian diagnostic algorithm is used for the safety system [13].
7	Petrochemicals	It is used to monitor internal damage and long-term corrosion conditions, storage pipes and tanks, pumps, towers in the petrochemical industry [14].
8	Other industries	It is used to identify errors in bearings and to detect errors in determining the location of metal breakage as well as mechanical equipment and quick thermal discharge speed test of semi-finished ceramic products [16]-[15].
9	Medical	For adjuvant diagnosis, the effect of clinical treatment evaluates traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture [17], evaluation of the therapeutic effect of patients with lumbar disc [18], diagnosis and evaluation of recovery after treatment in Raynaud's phenomenon [19]-[20]-[21] and also It is a suitable tool for diagnosing diabetic neuropathy or vascular disorders [22].

There are various algorithms for quality analysis and proper detection in infrared thermal imaging. These types of images are a key diagnostic tool widely used in airports for disease monitoring, transportation, night-vision cameras, and more at medium and long-distance infrared. On the other hand, designing thermal sensor arrays is very important because it is very effective in capturing these images with the least error. Therefore, according to what was mentioned, in this study, the electronic - optical circuit of the IRT detection sensor with easy usage for applicants and covering a wide variable range of temperature to showing on Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitor, will be designed and constructed and all practical results will be analyzed. So, the mechanism of heat transfer and calculation of image color coordinates based on temperature estimation should be introduced to explain how these systems work.

In general heat is the process of heat transfer that occurs in solids. The heat flow process has direct ratio to the cross section, the temperature difference between the two points and inverse ratio to the thickness, defining by Equation (1). In this equation, the amount of heat from surface  and the thickness are propagated over time. ,  are the initial and final temperature and  is the proportionality constant known as the thermal conductivity coefficient. This coefficient is a characteristic of each material and indicates the ease of heat flow in each material. Materials with high  value are thermal conductors and low  are thermal insulators [23]-[24].

The color related to each temperature must be calculated by the color coordinates and the average color of the image pixels. in this method Pixels with poor penetration are discarded in the calculation. Then the image pixels are converted to standard linear color space in RGB space. The red component (R) is calculated for PC images, and the same trends for the green and blue (G and B) components should be repeated. In these systems' equations, the parameters  and  represent the position of the pixels in the rows and columns, respectively, given in Equation (2).

(1)

The red, green and blue (RGB) color components obtained from Equation (2) are in the range [0 , 1]. Then, according to Equation (3), the pixel values are converted to  color space by multiplying the conversion matrix  and the  color vectors.

	(2)

The heat – color presented at the reciprocal scale  is a linear function of position. The heat – color relationship obtained in Equation (4) is as follows.

(3)

Theories and the application of appropriate algorithms to convert heat to color and perform the reverse process were reviewed; The parameters and devices used in the output circuit of the thermal detector were also introduced and the main components of the electronic board of the sensor are also in Table (2).

Table 2: Electronic board components

(4)

Row	The piece name
1	The main Micro - ARM IC numbered tm32f103RET6
2	lcdn96 with ili9325 chipset
3	regulator 3.3  numbered LM1117-3.3
4	Base J link programmer
5	(Passive Infrared) PIR
6	Thermal resistance
7	Crystal 8 MHz

 

 

Material and methods

1.       Simulation of Electronic IRT Sensor Circuit in Altium Software and Study of Micro - ARM Output Ports a, b and c by Keil Software

Figure (1A) indicates the designed circuit in Altium software includes: Automated Remote Manipulator (ARM) IC, PIRs, LCD monitor, power supply and other electronic pieces connected to resistors is linked to the main board. In Figure (1B) the main circuit and the electronic board with the output monitor, heat cells and other components previously introduced have been considered as an integrated system named heat – color Electronic Diagnostic (IRT) Sensor.

B)

A)

 

 

Figure 1: A) Designing of IRT sensor circuit by Altium software, B) Final integrated system of the IRT sensor

In order to investigate the outputs of a, b and c, Micro - ARM was applied a pulse to the square waveform simulator and the results were reported in Figures 2A, 2B and 2C, respectively. Figure 2A shows a square wave with a clock, which the clock pulse is defined as a bit and operates at a working frequency of 72 . On the other hand, port b by applying clock in range of 5.30 - 7.29  (min to max) and working frequency of 72 , its output waveform was created like Figure 2B. The output of port c also operates as a square wave with a shorter amplitude (Figure 2C), giving a clock pulse at a max time of 10.13  and a min time of 08.06  at 72 .

 

 

 

C

B

A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2: Simulation of A) port  Cportcof Micro-ARM basesby Keil software

 

 

2.       Heat - Color Sensor Test

In this step, Heat - Color Sensor has been placed to near four samples such as furnace, soldering iron, air conditioner and finger in order to investigate its function. In the Figure 3A the red color is displayed on the monitor due to the heat generated 40  by the furnace at a distance of half a meter from the sensor after 30 . Sensor after 45  at a distance of 5  from the soldering iron, shows a yellow color and the temperature on the LCD is 35  (Figure 3B). Figure 3C is showing the sensor close to the air conditioner, after 60  the temperature drops to 25  and was determined as blue on the LCD. In addition, as a last sample, After 70  when the finger stayed close to the sensor, the temperature will be indicated 29  and green color on the LCD (Figure 3D).

B

A

 

 

 

 

 

 

D

C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3: Function test of Heat - Color Sensor near to A) a furnace, B) a soldering iron, C) an air conditioner, D) a finger

 

 

Results and Discussion 

In Table (3), the results of several experimental tests and the relationship between the technical parameters of the system, including voltage, temperature and color are summarized.

Table 3: Summary and comparison the results of different tests

As an example, for soldering iron, the experimental method and the algorithm (theoretical method) will be stated; the other cases have been done in the same way. The experimental method was performed using a voltage of 1.87 - 2.1  at a temperature of 30 to 35, and also the following algorithm is defined in Keil software.

If (adc1>=1.87 && adc1<1.91)

T=30;

If (adc1>=1.91 && adc1<1.94)

T=31;

If (adc1>=1.87 && adc1<1.91)

T=32;

If (adc1>=1.91 && adc1<1.95)

T=33;

If (adc1>=1.95 && adc1<1.99)

T=34;

If (adc1>=1.99 && adc1<2.1)

T=35;

According to this study, The Heat - Color diagnostic sensors (Figure 4A) are different from the IR Thermometer (Figure 4B) in three aspects, led to its superior features and they are mentioned below:

1.       Having the simultaneous ability to display the temperature and color.

2.       Ability to provide on-screen motion detection by the PIR used in this sensor, for military, diagnostic, medical and even industrial applications.

3.       Ability to measure temperature changes at the lowest and highest temperature range in its algorithm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Case	Temperature from a near distance	Temperature from a far distance	Color	Voltage defined in algorithms
Furnace	40	37	Red	2.3 - 3.3
Soldering iron	35	30	Yellow	1.87 - 2.1
Air conditioner	25	27	Blue	1.7 - 1.87
Body temperature	29	26	Green	1.77 - 1.87

B

A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4: A) Heat - Color sensor, B) IR Thermometer (Industrial sample)

Development of new generations of infrared detectors, infrared thermal imaging has become an accurate diagnostic tool for measuring abnormal areas in the thermal pattern. Sensitivity to temperature, ability to spatial resolution, non-contact temperature detection and harmlessness are the features of thermal imaging or thermography method. These kinds of images can be stored digitally with precision infrared sensors, and after processing with various software packages, a massive understanding of the thermal pattern can be achieved. Studies also confirm the success of thermography in screening and diagnosing cancers, diabetes, diseases related to blood pathology in the medical field and in the industrial and military fields.

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