Programmable command interpreter to automate image processing of IR thermography

The video recording of dynamic experiments using infrared thermography can produce large numbers of images. Ten seconds of video includes 300 frames, each of may contain useful information. Automation is necessary to reduce the analysis time to an acceptable level. Since each experiment will have its own unique characteristics, the development of custom software for each analysis by a professional programmer is unreasonably expensive. A better approach is to implement a programmable interface to a general-purpose analysis program which the experimenter can program for a specific analyses needed. Version 3 of the Video Data Analysis System (VDAS) incorporates such an interface. In addition to standard programming language commands for arithmetic, input/output and flow to control, VDAS includes facilities for image processing, quantitative temperature and emissivity measurement, scanner calibration, noise and artifact reduction, and temperature contouring. An on-line help system describes the available commands or helps the user find the right command for a particular purpose. Additional commands allow the user to control a video disk player and recording for automatic processing of complete video sequences.