PASSIVE INFRARED DETECTOR FOR DETERMINING THE PRESENCE OF AN INTRUDER IN A MONITORED AREA

For reducing the susceptibility to false alarms and for increasing the detection probability of a passive infrared detector, the actual signals obtained from a first sensor element are continuously compared in a correlator with reference or set signals stored in a read-only memory and/or with the actual signals obtained from a second sensor element monitoring the near region. The correlator delivers an output signal which corresponds to the correlation of both signals which are compared with one another. An alarm signal is triggered when the correlation exceeds a predetermined value, for instance 0.7, and the amplitude has reached a predetermined threshold. The infrared detector affords high security against giving of false alarms and a high detection probability, even in the presence of signals possessing a great amount of noise, but also delivers an alarm signal in the event the detector is attempted to be sabotaged, for instance by covering the inlet optical system.