Method and system for storing calibration data within image files
View Patent ↗A system and method for storing, within an image transfer medium, an image and image-specific data associated with the image includes obtaining the image-specific data from a probe such as a borescope or endoscope, obtaining the corresponding image, choosing a specific image transfer medium, writing the image to the medium, and writing the image-specific data to a marker in the medium. In this manner, storing a combination of image data and one or more of system calibration data, overlay replacement data, and audio comment data in a single file of either a non-standard file format or a standard file format that does not explicitly support the inclusion of these data types is possible.
1. A method for storing overlay removal data within an image transfer media file, comprising the steps of:
capturing an image from a videoprobe of a remote visual inspection system;
generating a destructive overlay over said image captured from said videoprobe, thereby removing image data from said captured image;
creating a first image transfer media file element representative of at least said image data removed from said captured image by said generated destructive overlay;
creating a second image transfer media file element representative of said captured image and said generated destructive overlay; and
embedding data from said first image transfer media file element and said second image transfer file element into said image transfer media file so that said captured image and said generated destructive overlay are visible using a standard image viewer, and said image data from said captured image that was removed by said generated destructive overlay can be reconstituted from said embedded data.
2. A method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of storing additional image-specific data within said image transfer media file by
obtaining said image-specific data associated with said captured image from said videoprobe of the remote visual inspection system, a user of said remote visual inspection system, or both; and
writing said image-specific data to a marker in said image transfer media file.
3. A method according to claim 2 , wherein said image-specific data includes measurement tip calibration data from said videoprobe.
4. A method according to claim 2 , wherein said image-specific data includes overlay replacement data associated with measurement.
5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said image transfer media file is one of a JPEG file, a bitmap file, and a TIFF file.
6. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
determining when a command is received to clear said generated destructive overlay from said captured image;
retrieving information from said first image transfer media file element representative of at least said image data removed from said captured image by said generated destructive overlay; and
replacing said generated destructive overlay with said information.
7. A method according to claim 2 , further comprising the steps of: determining if said image-specific data is contained in said image transfer medium; and retrieving said image-specific data from said image transfer medium.
8. A method according to claim 7 , wherein said image-specific data includes overlay replacement data associated with measurement.
9. A system for storing overlay removal data within an image transfer media file, comprising:
means for capturing an image from a videoprobe of a remote visual inspection system;
means for generating a destructive overlay over said image captured from said videoprobe, thereby removing image data from said captured image;
means for creating a first image transfer media file element representative of at least said image data removed from said captured image by said generated destructive overlay;
means for creating a second image transfer media file element representative of said captured image and said generated destructive overlay; and
means for embedding data from said first image transfer media file element and said second image transfer file element into said image transfer media file so that said captured image and said generated destructive overlay are visible using a standard image viewer, and said image data that was removed by said generated destructive overlay can be reconstituted from said embedded data.