New method for on-line microbolometer detector nonuniformity correction

The introduction of uncooled infrared detectors gave new opportunities for obtaining of thermal images. The application of microbolometer infrared focal plane array in thermovision cameras made them much smaller, lighter and more energy-saving. Additionally, this would significantly reduce costs and accelerate the implementation of new structures in devices, which are mainly used in medical and non-destructive research as well as for surveillance and observation. Another very essential element of the modern thermovision systems is specialized software. It enables to save thermal images in real time directly from the thermovision camera, which can be later processed and analyzed. All of those advantages significantly increased the share of thermographic measurements in the area of effective and universal tools for exploration and research. Experiments proved that the gain correction is recommended, because its non-uniformity was rather high in case of used equipment, as shown in Fig. 3. Even if the scene temperature increased by several dozen centrigades, it would be enough to face the lack of measurement precision for about 10% of the thermogram area. Therefore, according to our experiments, the proposed method of gain correction, if applied in a thermal camera, may decrease its measurement uncertainty. (author)