SEPTEMBER 24, 2009--Bodkin Design & Engineering, LLC (BD&E; Netwon, MA, USA; www.bodkindesign.com) has been awarded a $70,000 SBIR Phase 1 contract from the US Navy to develop a hyperspectral imaging system for integration into Type 18 periscopes and AN/BVS-1 Photonics Masts to perform contact recognition and identification in marine environments.
Hyperspectral imaging will enable the identification and tracking of targets in cluttered environments as well as the reacquisition of targets after their movement out of view. There are many methods of capturing hyperspectral data; however, the device being built at BD&E will capture both spectral and spatial information in one instantaneous video frame. The company says this eliminates motion artifacts that plague traditional scanned systems, enabling high-fidelity data to be obtained from both moving platforms and of moving targets.
The system is intended to support the Navy's need for automatic contact recognition and identification. The device allows the continuous collection and real-time transmission of data cubes. It will process the hyperspectral data and associate a unique hyperspectral tag with each contact. According to BD&E, it has no moving parts and provides high-resolution spectra in a compact, ruggedized, low-cost package.
BD&E will work in collaboration with the Space Computer Corporation (SCC) of Los Angeles, CA, to develop a hyperspectral imaging system covering the visible to short-wavelength infrared (SWIR). BD&E will combine its HyperPixel Array (HPA) imager and SCC's hyperspectral image-processing capabilities, to build the prototype system.
The six-month project is funded by the Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR), a program established by the Small Business Administration Office to ensure that the nation's small, high-tech, innovative businesses are a significant part of the federal government's research and development efforts. Success of the Phase I demonstration will lead to a prototype design to be built and tested in Phase II of the project.
-- Posted by Vision Systems Design, www.vision-systems.com
