A 2-D ferrous object imaging technique based on magnetic field sensor arrays

Abstract

A set of new signal-processing algorithms is being presented in this work that allow for the construction of images of the physical view of ferrous objects. This imaging technique, called MAD-Camera, is based on the discrete-time, spatial sampling of two components of the magnetic anomaly field-vector. The MAD-Camera prevails over other conventional Magnetic-Anomaly-Detection (MAD) techniques for the following two reasons. Firstly, it may provide with a good estimation of all three components of the anomaly field-vector near the penetrating ferrous objects. This is equivalent with capturing a more detailed magnetic signature; similar penetrating objects can be discriminated. Secondly, the technique provides directly with the physical view of the penetrating objects. As a result, no magnetic-signature databases and pattern-matching algorithms are required for a MAD application to function.