US Patent 8374438 Visual template-based thermal inspection system

An imaging device and system include integration of an imaging camera (visible-light or near-infrared) with a thermal infrared sensor, capturing a baseline image from this camera simultaneously with acquisition of baseline thermal infrared data, which may correspond to a known good condition or part, automatic generation of an edge version of the baseline image for use as an alignment template, and on subsequent thermal infrared inspections, superposition of the alignment template on a live video image from the visible camera, so as to facilitate highly repeatable alignment of the thermal infrared sensor to an object being inspected.