HeatWave

HeatWave: 3D Thermography System

HeatWave is a small handheld 3D thermography device that is able to generate a precise 3D model of an object or scene, which is overlaid with view-independent temperature and appearance information in real-time.

It has significant application in many industries such as energy, building, manufacturing, construction, emergency services, and health.

HeatWave consists of a thermal-infrared camera, a conventional colour camera and a 3D range sensor. As an operator holding the device smoothly wave his hands around the objects, range sensor captures the geometric information and the SLAM software generates a precise 3D model of the environment by incorporating information from each new range measurement in real-time.

The device position and orientation (i.e., pose) with respect to the model are estimated simultaneously, allowing appearance information and temperature distribution from color and thermal camera to be overlaid on the 3D model.

By capturing multiple viewpoints of each part of the scene, the operator assists the system to estimate the temperature distribution more accurately.

The output of HeatWave is a single complete 3D multispectral model with high accuracy, view independent augmented temperature and visible information to detect any appearance, shape, temperature or temporal changes within the environment.

The dense, high-resolution 3D multispectral model can be visualized in either modality independently or both simultaneously using “Spectra” the world’s first 3D multispectral visualization toolbox developed by HeatWave’s team at the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Group.

For more information please contact: Dr Peyman Moghadam (chief investigator).

HeatWave Specifications

Thermal Sensitivity	<40 mk (0.04 °C)
Thermal Accuracy	± 2 °C
Thermal Spectral Range	7.5-13 µm
Thermal Resolution	Super HD*
Temperature Range	-20 °C to 900 °C (select from 3 calibration ranges)
Operating Range	1m-4m
Max 3D Volume	5m x 5m @ 1cm resolution
3D Measurement Accuracy	± 0.1% (typically)
Power	USB Powered
Weight	500g (current prototype)
Data Output Format	.las, .ply (mesh and pointcloud)

*80 frames per seconds combined to produce super high resolution

Awards

29 August 2014: Winner of the 2014 national iAward for Research and Development
12 June 2014: Winner of the 2014 Queensland iAward for Research and Development

An operator scanning the engine of a vehicle using the HeatWave device.

 

 

3D Color Model

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Publications:

• P. Moghadam, 3D medical thermography device, Proc. SPIE 9485, Thermosense: Thermal Infrared Applications XXXVII, 94851J, 2015; doi:10.1117/12.2177880.
• P. Moghadam, S. Vidas, O. Lam, Spectra: 3D Multispectral Fusion and Visualization Toolkit., The Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation (ACRA), 2014.
• S. Vidas, P. Moghadam, S. Sridharan, Real-time Mobile 3D Temperature Mapping , Sensors Journal, IEEE, vol.15, no.2, pp.1145 – 1152, Feb. 2015.
• P. Moghadam, S. Vidas, HeatWave: the next generation of thermography devices, SPIE Sensing Technology+Applications, 5 – 9 May 2014, Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
• S. Vidas, P. Moghadam, HeatWave: A handheld 3D thermography system for energy auditing , Energy and Buildings, Volume 66, November 2013, Pages 445-460, ISSN 0378-7788, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.07.030.
• S. Vidas, P. Moghadam, M. Bosse, 3D Thermal Mapping of Building Interiors using an RGB-D and Thermal Camera, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2013, pp. 3670–3676.
• S. Vidas, P. Moghadam, Ad hoc radiometric calibration of a thermal-infrared camera. 2013 International Conference on Digital Image Computing: Techniques and Applications (DICTA), pp. 1-8, 26-28 Nov. 2013

Click here to view a use case for a 3D model of the human body.

For more information, contact Dr Peyman Moghadam.