Systems and methods for monitoring sun exposure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016100764-A1
Application number	US-201514880090-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 9, 2015
Priority date	Oct 9, 2014
Publication date	Apr 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for detecting overexposure of skin to ultraviolet light. A system may include a thermal imaging module that captures thermal images of a person's skin. Using the thermal images, the system may determine whether the person's skin has been or is being overexposed to ultraviolet light. The system may be a fixed camera system for monitoring an outdoor area, may be a mobile device having a thermal imaging module within or coupled to the mobile device, or may be part of a tanning system having an ultraviolet light source and a thermal imaging module. The overexposure may be detected in a thermal image based on a temperature of the person's skin, a change in the temperature of the person's skin over time or a temperature difference between portions of the person's skin.

First claim

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected is:

1 . A system, comprising:
a thermal imaging module configured to capture a thermal image of a person's skin; and a processor configured to determine, based on the thermal image, whether the person's skin is at risk of or has experienced overexposure to ultraviolet radiation.

2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a display, wherein the processor is further configured to generate an overexposure alert on the display if it is determined that the person's skin at risk of or has experienced overexposure to ultraviolet radiation.

3 . The system of claim 2 , further comprising a non-thermal imaging module configured to capture a non-thermal image of the person's skin, wherein the processor is further configured to:
generate a combined image based on the thermal image and the non-thermal image; and provide the combined image on the display.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the combined image comprises the non-thermal image and an indicator based on the thermal image, wherein the indicator indicates the location in the non-thermal image of at least a portion of the person's skin that is sunburned.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine whether the person's skin is at risk of or has experienced overexposure to ultraviolet radiation based on a temperature of the person's skin determined from the thermal image, a change in temperature of the person's skin over time determined from the thermal image and at least one additional thermal image, or a temperature difference between a first portion of the person's skin and a second portion of the person's skin determined from the thermal image.

6 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of cameras configured to view an outdoor area to be monitored, wherein the thermal imaging module is disposed in a selected one of the plurality of cameras.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the thermal imaging module and the processor are a thermal imaging module and a processor of a mobile device or a mobile device attachment.

8 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising at least one tanning bed structure having an ultraviolet light source, wherein the thermal imaging module is disposed in the tanning bed structure.

9 . The system of claim 8 , further comprising an alert component configured to generate an overexposure alert if it is determined that the person's skin at risk of or has experienced overexposure to ultraviolet radiation.

10 . The system of claim 9 , further comprising a shutoff switch configured to turn off the ultraviolet light source if it is determined that the person's skin at risk of or has experienced overexposure to ultraviolet radiation.

11 . A method, comprising:
capturing a thermal image of a person's skin; displaying the thermal image; and determining, based on the thermal image, whether the person's skin is at risk of or has experienced overexposure to ultraviolet radiation.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising generating an overexposure alert on a display if it is determined that the person's skin is at risk of or has experienced overexposure to ultraviolet radiation.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining comprises determining whether the person's skin is at risk of or has experienced overexposure to ultraviolet radiation based on a temperature of the person's skin determined from the thermal image, based on a change in temperature of the person's skin over time determined from the thermal image and at least one additional thermal image, or based on a temperature difference between a first portion of the person's skin and a second portion of the person's skin determined from the thermal image.

14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the capturing comprises capturing the thermal image using a thermal imaging module of a mobile device or a mobile device attachment.

15 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising generating ultraviolet light using an ultraviolet light source in at least one tanning bed structure and wherein the capturing comprises capturing the thermal image using a thermal imaging module disposed in the tanning bed structure.

16 . The system of claim 15 , further comprising generating an overexposure alert or turning off the ultraviolet light source if it is determined that the person's skin is at risk of or has experienced overexposure to the ultraviolet light.

17 . A non-transitory machine readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
receiving thermal image data; analyzing the thermal image data; and determining, based on the analyzing, areas of a person's skin having a risk of overexposure to ultraviolet light.

18 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises displaying an image based on the thermal image data that identifies the areas of the person's skin having the risk of overexposure to ultraviolet light.

19 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises providing, on a display, a warning of the risk of overexposure to ultraviolet light.

20 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving non-thermal image data; and providing a combined image based on the thermal image data and the non-thermal image data to a user.

Assignees

• Flir Systems

Inventors

• Teich Andrew C

Classifications

• H04N5/33

  Transforming infrared radiation (cameras or camera modules for generating image signals from infrared radiation H04N23/20; circuitry of SSIS for transforming infrared radiation into image signals H04N25/20) · CPC title

• A61B5/015 Primary

  By temperature mapping of body part · CPC title

• A61B5/742

  using visual displays (displays for heart-related electrical signals, e.g. ECG, A61B5/339) · CPC title

• H04N7/181

  for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources · CPC title

• G06K9/00362

  Physics · mapped topic