Cameras capable of measuring temperature and recognizing objects have only received attention during the coronavirus pandemic. It deserves mention, however, that apart from protection against viruses, a thermal camera can prove to be useful in a great variety of situations and locations. Let us now review the solutions and possibilities of the PT3 C005 IH ADM-3/PA type dual lens thermal camera, a new member of the Techson product range.
As opposed to its previous thermal camera models, instead of fever detection, the latest thermal camera from Techson, the TCI PT3 C005 IH ADM-3/PA is more focused on perimeter protection, surveillance, fire detection and temperature measurement.
The device is made up of a dual lens system. One of these is a 5 MP 1/2.7-inch image sensor optical lens, responsible for the basic imaging functions of the security camera. The so-called microbolometer responsible for producing thermal images, is located next to it. In addition to the lenses, the camera is equipped with all accessories typical of perimeter alarm, or PA cameras. Three white LED lights are located on the front panel of the device, which are activated in event of an alarm. A speaker was installed onto the bottom of the camera, that is capable of emitting various acoustic alarms. The device is further equipped with a microphone input and an alarm output. The “Live” view area on the dedicated interface of the security camera appears with the images of both image sensors together. The image of either one can be selected freely, in order to view only one of the lenses.
The fusion of thermal and normal camera images is a special form of display, which provides an additional option for the evaluation of an image by blending two image views: this way the thermal image captured by the thermal camera is displayed together with the details, which were only detected by the normal camera, for example content behind glass surfaces, or images and text on various objects.
Numerous intelligent functions are available among the settings of the device, with the possibility to select the ones necessary and relevant for the given purpose. The conventional optical part of the device offers the intelligent functions available within the MS4 camera range. In order to configure these functions, the desired optical module needs to be selected first. When the thermal module is selected, line crossing and intrusion can be configured. In case of the normal module, however, additional functions are also available, such as perimeter detection combined with object recognition, target counting, or even face recognition. It must be noted that the intelligent functions of only one lens can be applied at a time.
Settings and alarms related to fire detection and temperature measurement can be configured under a separate menu item.
Consequently, in order to make full use of the camera, it is desirable to use the optical lens for intelligent functions, and to set up analytics based on temperature measurement on the thermal side.
It is important to understand the differences between fire detection and temperature measurement. In case of fire detection, the thermal camera triggers an alarm, when an excessive change in temperature, close to 100°C is detected within the monitored environment. At the same time, the device places frames around the detected hot spots to indicate the location of the danger source. This allows for a more reliable early detection of fires, as compared to the temperature measurement function. On the other hand, the temperature measurement function offers a much wider range of options: up to 10 rules can be set up for measurements. To set up a rule, a given point, line or area can be selected, to determine where the measurements will be taken by the Techson thermal camera. Then the temperature values, which trigger an alarm can be set for the given areas. Reasons for triggering an alarm can be temperatures above or below a given value, such as a preset temperature limit, or the average temperature of the monitored area. This way, in contrast with the fire detection function, an alarm temperature can be set by the user, along with the distance of the target area from the camera, or an error margin.
The white light alarm, acoustic alarm and alarm outputs are available for all alarms, but all rules will trigger the same alarm set. It may be interesting to note, that the device can be set to continuously display the average temperature of a given area, along with the respective minimum and maximum temperatures in the “Live” view of the device. The latter two can be set to appear as a dot. Furthermore, by clicking a given point on the thermal image, the camera displays the temperature in that given point.
The Techson thermal camera features three white LED lights, which can be used to trigger a light alarm. On the dedicated interface of the device the flashing rate (between 1 and 60 seconds) and frequency (on a three-level scale) can be set for the light alarm. The device offers a set of predefined sounds for various events or alarms. The use of custom recorded sounds is also possible. These can be added to the camera in two ways, either by uploading pre-recorded sounds to the thermal camera, or by recording the desired sound material on the web interface of the device. In the latter case, the camera also saves the sound recording on the personal computer used. Sound recordings are limited to 10 seconds.
Recorded or uploaded sounds can be selected for various alarms. As a further option for sound alarms, the number of times a given recording should be played by the Techson thermal camera, and the playback volume can also be set. Moreover, the behaviour of the sensor input and alarm output of the device can also be set and used accordingly as an NO or NC contact.
By inserting an SD card into the Techson camera, captured photos and videos can be viewed on the camera interface, with the possibility to select either lens to view the recordings or images of. The camera has also been extended with a statistics data menu, where target counter statistics can be retrieved.
The TCI PT3 C005 IH ADM-3/PA dual lens thermal camera stands up to the tasks of surveillance and early fire warning even on its own, and with the added intelligent features, a wide range of various applications are possible. The image of the thermal camera can be processed by the Techson NVR as of firmware version 1.4.7, and this service is also available in the SmartCenter VMS. Conventional optical images and the intelligent functions introduced earlier can also be processed on older NVRs. It must be emphasized, that the dual lens thermal camera cannot substitute a comprehensive fire safety system on its own, but it can be a useful or even indispensable component in such a system.