Wearable safety apparatus for, and method of, displaying heat source characteristics and/or hazards

摘要

A wearable safety apparatus includes a housing, a plurality of directional thermal imaging sensors mounted on the housing and facing outwardly away from the housing in a corresponding plurality of different directions towards thermal zones of a heat source. Each sensor detects infrared radiation (IR) intensity and generates an output indicative of a temperature of the detected IR intensity in a respective thermal zone faced by a respective sensor. An interface is mounted on the housing and has a display positioned to be viewable by a user, e.g., a firefighter. A controller processes the outputs generated by the sensors, and displays at a plurality of spaced-apart positions on the display a plurality of positional thermal indicators when the temperature in the respective thermal zone is elevated. The position of each positional thermal indicator corresponds to the thermal zone faced by the respective sensor.

主权项

1. A wearable safety apparatus, comprising:
a housing; a plurality of directional thermal imaging sensors mounted on the housing and generally facing outwardly away from the housing in a corresponding plurality of different directions towards thermal zones of a heat source, each sensor being operative for detecting infrared radiation (IR) intensity and for generating an output indicative of a temperature of the detected IR intensity in a respective thermal zone generally faced by a respective sensor; an ambient thermal imaging sensor mounted on the housing for detecting an ambient temperature for the apparatus; a gas detector mounted on the housing for detecting a gas and a concentration of the gas; and a controller for processing the outputs generated by the directional thermal imaging sensors, the ambient temperature generated by the ambient thermal imaging sensor, and the gas and concentration detected by the detector to determine conditions leading to a flashover are present, and for indicating such flashover conditions responsive to the determination that the conditions leading to the flashover are present.