DEMM Engineering & Manufacturing
Real-world thermal images
Being able to share camera images is a great benefit of thermal imaging technology. However, a thermal image alone is not always enough to help your customers understand what they are seeing. For this reason, Flir Systems developed the MSX multi-spectral dynamic image mode.
MSX imaging brings together both the visual and thermal spectrums, and is now on board most of the firm’s thermal cameras for the industrial and building market.
MSX generates a definitive, all-in-one thermal picture that easily orients you to the location of the problem as soon as you see it on the screen or in a report. With the Flir format you’ll save all images with one push of a button.
Key details apparent to the naked eye such as numbers, labels, signage, and structural features can get lost in a regular thermal image. A regular thermal image only displays heat signatures, which can cause details to get lost in the haze if they present a similar temperature.
To overcome this, Flir cameras with MSX use an internal digital camera to enhance the thermal image. The highcontrast skeletonised visual image allows for key aspects of the visible spectrum to be overlaid on top of the thermal output, while still keeping the important thermal information prominent.
Engines
Thermal image with MSX. Note how the motor numbers are legible.
Consider the elbow connectors for example. Through the thermal camera you can see that one of the connectors is hot, and with your own eyes you can see a label identifying each connection on the panel.
But the ink on those labels is going to have the exact same temperature as the sticker they are printed on, so your thermal imager will not differentiate between them. With MSX on the other hand this is clearly visible in the image.
MSX technology extracts high-contrast details from the images taken by an on board visible light camera, and etches or superimposes them onto the thermal images that the camera is taking. This all happens in real time, so what you see onscreen is a super sharp image that allows you to make out unprecedented details in the image.
MSX uses visual data from a digital camera built into several models of thermal cameras for the industrial and building markets. Internal software then analyzes the image from the cameras to superimpose the key aspects of that visual world onto the thermal image.
The visual spectrum never blots out the thermal side of things, making sure that all information is still at the highest level of accuracy.
MSX ensures easier target identification without compromising radiometric data and the quality of the thermal images is excellent. Thanks to MSX, thermal images look sharper, the orientation of the target will be done quicker, the reports are clutter-free and ensure a faster route to solutions. Users can see the results of MSX technology directly on the touch screen of the camera, in real time.
Thermal imaging cameras of the past have featured ways to blend, overlay or fuse a portion of a thermal image into a visible light picture. But these modes have only provided a partial solution and typically take extra time to dial in and interpret. They also tend to limit or obscure the thermal view of the scene.
MSX is completely different. MSX technology embosses digital camera detail onto thermal video and stills. Therefore, MSX delivers much better, visible results than traditional methods, which can dilute the thermal image.