Load movement measurement using a near-infrared CCD camera for aircraft cargo surveillance

The paper presents a video surveillance system which is able to measure the load displacements in an aircraft cargo area as well as the appearance of fires (hot surfaces, flame and smoke). To benefit from both measurements and cost savings, the system is based on an uncooled CCD camera operating in a near infrared (NIR) spectral band. In this article, we focus on load displacement measurements. The cargo compartment is not pressurized and the temperature is not controlled, thus it may vary from -55/spl deg/C to 85/spl deg/C. The influence of spectral band and temperature variations on a spatial resolution camera is studied using the physical models of a CCD camera. The classical camera geometric model is modified to take into account these variations. After the load detection, the geometric model is used to localize the load in the cargo area. Finally, we present the image processing software which computes the 3D load displacement.