METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MONITORING A GLASS FURNACE

A method and apparatus for automatically monitoring the amount of batch material floating on an irradiant pool of melt in a glass melting furnace is disclosed. A video camera is positioned so as to view the surface of the batch and melt mixture through a window formed in a wall of the furnace tank. The video signal is digitized by a computer into a plurality of pixel signals. The pixel signals can be utilized to generate a histogram relating the number of digitized pixel signals to a relative light intensity scale. The generated histogram will be bimodal, with one peak centering around a lower scale value corresponding to the darker batch pixels and the other peak centering around a higher scale value corresponding to the lighter melt pixels. A suitable threshold, such as the minimum point between the two peaks, can be selected to separate the two peaks. The areas defined by the histogram above and below the selected threshold can be determined to provide a reasonable estimate of the amount of batch and melt present in the viewed region of the tank.