On the proposal of quantitative temperature measurement by using three-color technique combined with several infrared sensors having different detection wavelength bands

Abstract We developed the previous infrared sensing technique, the two-color technique, to establish further a more general technique to measure the temperature quantitatively under near-ambient conditions. The quantitative temperature measurement, three-color technique, was newly proposed by combining three kinds of infrared radiometers having different detection wavelength bands. The measurement can also be done by adding three infrared filters to one infrared radiometer. The radiometers have a selective detection wavelength band of several μm in width which is in the range of 2–13 μ m. The method was confirmed using numerical simulation to allow a parametric study of how the result varies for different values of emissivity corresponding to the respective infrared radiometers. An experimental investigation was also performed to evaluate the measurement error and the adaptability of the technique. As this technique has a feature that can perform quantitative temperature measurement for objective surfaces at each picture element without presuming any emissivity, reflectivity and ambient conditions, there is a possibility that the technique will be useful for various medical or engineering disciplines.