Intelligent Automation, Inc. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N143-126

Description

Infrared images are used to evaluate thermal stress of clothing and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), however current methods are subjective, prone to errors, and restricted to stationary poses human subjects or manikins. Intelligent Automatic proposes to develop a Thermal Image Comparison Software Tool that provides quantitative and objective thermal measurement for clothing and PPE assessment. Our solution uses a 3D imaging sensor to estimate motion, determine body pose and locate body parts. A thermal camera aligned with the 3D sensor measures temperature. By mapping temperature to specific body points, thermal measurements from multiple test runs can be mapped to a common 3D wire-frame human model so that thermal stress on specific garment areas or landmarks (seams, sleeve, zippers, etc.) can be compared directly. With this method, the tool can be used while the human subject is moving under a variety of environmental and operating condition. These measurements can be accurately aggregated over time, so they are less sensitive to noise compared to single-frame analysis. Further, the dynamic change of the temperature on different body component could also be recorded.