JPH09128515A - Bulb burning out detector for airplane warning light - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To economically detect the electric light bulb burn-out of an airplane warning light (obstacle light) provided on an aerial power transmission line, etc. SOLUTION: The plural airplane warning lights are included in the view of a camera 1, and this image is temporarily stored onto a memory inside an image storage device 3. Besides, the image at the same position is fetched again and added 2 to the image mentioned above. After this operation is repeated several times, the image to which addition 2 is processed is binarized by a binarizing processing circuit 4 and the light part and dark part of the image are made conspicuous. When the section to be originally photographed light in the binary image is dark, it is discriminated that the airplane warning light at that section has burnt out.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for detecting the disconnection (bulb out) of an aviation obstruction light mounted on an overhead power transmission line or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a device for detecting the disconnection of an aviation obstruction light, there has been one that collects the light of the aviation obstruction light and detects the disconnection by changing the level of the light.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, it is necessary to attach the light collecting means and the level change detecting means of the collected light to each aviation obstacle lamp. That is, one device is required for each ball of the obstacle light, and the disconnection monitoring system is expensive.

Here, as another method for remotely monitoring the aviation obstruction lights, it is conceivable that the obstruction lights are taken by a TV camera and the image is transferred to a monitor TV to check the lighting state of each obstruction light. In this method, it is necessary for the monitor to check the disconnection by looking at the monitor TV, and since the number of monitor TVs increases when the number of monitoring points increases, it is not possible to monitor with a small number of people, and moreover, the image is not changed. A large-scale information transmission network is required for sending, which is rather disadvantageous as compared with the case of using the above-described disconnection detecting device.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an disconnection detecting device which is economically advantageous and can easily construct a monitoring system.

[0006]

An aviation obstruction light disconnection detection apparatus according to the present invention which solves the above-mentioned problems, is provided with an image input means such as an ITV camera for keeping the aviation obstruction light to be detected in the field of view and a video image temporarily. A means for storing and a means for processing video data are provided, image processing is performed on the video captured by the video input means, and a change in the aviation obstruction light shooting area in this image is confirmed to confirm the disconnection of the aviation obstruction light. Is detected.

In this apparatus, the image of the same place is taken in by the image input means a plurality of times, the image data of each time is added, and the added image is binarized by the binarization circuit. It is more desirable to detect the disconnection of the aviation obstruction light by changing the brightness of the aviation obstruction light imaging area. Further, even in the case where the image is captured only once, it is desirable to detect the disconnection by the change in the brightness of the binarized image.

[0008]

When a camera is used as the image input means,
Multiple aviation obstruction lights can be included in the field of view of the camera. The apparatus of the present invention image-processes the image captured in this way to ensure that the portion where the aviation obstruction light is lit can be distinguished from the surrounding dark portion, and illuminates the position where it should be in the image. The disconnection of the obstruction light is determined depending on whether or not a part exists. Therefore, it is possible to detect the disconnection of a plurality of obstacle lights with one device.

Further, the one in which the video data of the same location is taken in and added many times to judge the disconnection from the binarized image is an obstacle lamp whose position does not move due to the addition of the video data and the binarization. Is emphasized, it is also prevented that light from a moving object (for example, a light of an automobile) is mistaken for an aviation obstruction light. Even if the light from a moving object happens to enter the position of the obstacle light, the position of the light shifts when the next image is captured, and if the images are captured and added many times, the light enters the position of the obstacle light. Light becomes so weak that it can be ignored.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the aviation obstruction light core detection device of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a camera,
The aviation obstruction light to be detected is captured within the field of view (in the screen).

The image taken by this camera is sent from the transmitter to the receiver and taken into the core disconnection detecting section 7. The disconnection detection unit 7 includes an addition device 2, a video storage device 3, and an image processing unit 6 including a binarization processing circuit 4 and a disconnection detection circuit 5.

The image captured by the camera 1 is temporarily stored (primarily stored) in the memory of the image storage device 3. The camera 1 recaptures an image at the same location after a set time (which may be in seconds or longer) has elapsed.
Then, this image and the above image are added by the adding device 2 and temporarily stored (secondary storage) in the memory in the image storage device 3. After repeating this operation a plurality of times, the image data secondarily stored in the memory is binarized by the binarization circuit 4 with a certain threshold value (0 or 1, for example, 0 is black, 1 is It becomes a white image), and clarify the bright and dark areas.

When there is no bright portion at the position where the binary image should be (obstacle light photographing area), the output of the photoelectric conversion element (for example, photodiode) receiving the image of that portion is higher than the reference value. The value becomes lower (in the case of converting the obstruction lamp lighting part into a black image, it becomes higher than the reference value). A change in the output is detected in the disconnection detection circuit 5, and the determination of disconnection is made in this circuit. The disconnection signal thus obtained is sent to the monitoring unit through the transmission path.

FIG. 2 shows an example of detecting the disconnection of an aviation obstruction light installed in an overhead power transmission tower with the apparatus of the present invention configured as shown in FIG. In this figure, four aviation obstruction lights 8 are attached to one steel tower 9, and the camera 1 is installed at a position where the two steel towers are within the field of view. Therefore, the number of obstacle lights monitored by one device is eight, but if another obstacle light does not overlap when viewed from the position of the camera 1,
The number of obstacle lights in the field of view can be further increased.

In this way, the image of the night when the obstacle light is turned on is captured and sent to the above-mentioned disconnection detecting section 7 via the image transmitter 10 and the image receiver 11. As a result, economical disconnection detection can be performed, and labor for installing the device can be reduced.

Further, since the apparatus according to the embodiment captures the images a plurality of times and adds them, the images are converted into a binarized image and the disconnection detection is performed.
Even if light from a moving object enters the image of the camera, it is not mistaken as a lit obstacle light and the reliability of detection is increased.

[0017]

As described above, since the disconnection detecting device of the present invention can detect disconnection of a plurality of aviation obstruction lights with one device, the number of devices used can be reduced.
The labor of installation can be reduced, and a core disconnection detection system that is economically and practically advantageous can be constructed.

Further, the one in which the images of the same portion are captured several times and added to each other to form a binarized image for detecting the disconnection can sufficiently secure the reliability.

Therefore, it is particularly effective when it is introduced into the maintenance field of an overhead power transmission line in which a large number of aviation obstacle lights are attached and remote monitoring is inevitable.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an aviation obstruction light core detection device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing one mode of use of the device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Camera 2 Addition Device 3 Video Storage Device 4 Binarization Circuit 5 Core Break Detection Circuit 6 Image Processing Section 7 Core Break Detection Section 8 Aviation Obstruction Light 9 Tower 10 Video Transmitter 11 Video Receiver

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. I for keeping an aviation obstruction light to be detected in the field of view
A video input means such as a TV camera, a means for temporarily storing the video, and a means for processing the video data are provided, and the video captured by the video input means is subjected to image processing, and an aviation obstruction light shooting area in the image is obtained. A aviation obstruction light disconnection detection device that detects the change in the aviation obstruction light and detects the disconnection of the aviation obstruction light. 2. The image input means captures an image of the same location a plurality of times, adds the image data of each time, and binarizes the image after the addition by a binarizing circuit. The disconnection detection device for an aviation obstruction light according to claim 1, wherein the disconnection detection of the aviation obstruction light is detected by changing the brightness of the obstruction light photographing area.