Thermal Threat Monitoring Using Thermal Image Analysis and Convolutional Neural Networks

Monitoring of the vital signs or environment of disabled people is currently very popular because it increases their safety, improves their quality of life and facilitates remote care. The article proposes a system for automatic protection against burns based on the detection of thermal threats intended for blind or visually impaired people. Deep learning methods and CNNs were used to analyze images recorded by mobile thermal cameras. The proposed algorithm analyses thermal images covering the field of view of a user for the presence of objects with high or very high temperatures. If the user’s hand appears in such an area, the procedure warning about the possibility of burns is activated and the algorithm generates an alarm. To achieve this effect, the thermal images were analyzed using the 15-layered convolutional neural network proposed in the article. The proposed solution provided the efficiency of detecting threat situations of over 99% for a set of more than 21,000 images. Tests were carried out for various network configurations, architecture and both the accuracy and precision of hand detection was 99.5%, whereas sensitivity reached 99.7%. The effectiveness of burn risk detection was 99.7%—a hot object—and the hand appeared simultaneously in the image. The presented method allows for quick, effective and automatic warning against thermal threats. The optimization of the model structure allows for its use with mobile devices such as smartphones and mobile thermal imaging cameras.