Weld cameras can produce color and monochrome images. Often monochrome images are selected as they provide the best resolution for a wide variety of applications. The monochrome images generated by the camera are often further processed to make the informational detail of the weld process more useful and interesting to the observer.
Usually, a tone mapping process is applied to the weld camera images to provide an enhanced image with maximum contrast for the user, such as what is done with images from the Xiris XVC-1000 weld camera. However, sometimes an additional technique called pseudo coloring can be done on the tone mapped image to provide additional visibility of key features to the user.
Pseudo coloring is when each grey level (or intensity value) in a monochrome image is assigned a color. The resulting image can make the identification of certain features easier for the observer, as the perceived difference in color space for the operator is bigger than between successive grey levels alone. Details such as the leading edge of a melt pool, the boundary between a torch and weld arc, the interface between the weld arc and the melt pool, or the texture of the melt pool can all be made more visible to the operator using pseudo coloring.
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| Monochrome Image from a TIG Weld | Same Image, with Pseudo Coloring |
Why bother with pseudo coloring? You might think that your images look just fine in black and white, right? And they probably do. However, in some welding applications, adding color to an image can make it much easier to distinguish between different objects especially when they are almost the same level of intensity such as in the images above. Try it in WeldStudio™, Xiris’ software utility for weld cameras, to see if it helps.
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