I've just returned from presenting to an engineering college at a defense university. The topic of my lecture was on the technology variables key to advancing image quality and imaging performance on portable, thermal sensing equipment:
1) Lens system
2) Core resolution and sensitivity (at nominal capture rate of 30 Hz or higher)
3) Processing power
4) Display resolution
Thermal core (or microbolometer) technology in portable sensors are advancing more rapidly in the area of pitch reduction. In the past couple of years, there have been progressive and rapid reductions from 25 micron, to 17 micron, to 12 micron pitch in production cores. However, the resolution of these cores largely remains in within 640x480 to 640x512, and their thermal sensitivity between 50 - 55 mK.
Until there is a 2x - 4x increase in matrix density, which is 50% to 100% increase in core resolution, advances in other technologies in the image capture and processing "critical path" can be leveraged to dramatically improve thermal image quality and thermal imager performance. Furthermore, enhancement in these other attributes (#1, #3, #4 above) will also compliment and enhance any improvements in the core technology (#1), which means that they are investments that will not be quickly obsoleted by performance advancements in the thermal core.
In layman's terms, this means that with "other" system upgrades, a 640x480 / 25 micron / 50 mK / 30 Hz thermal core produced in 2008 can easily match or surpass the performance of current production "thermal scopes" using 17 and even 12 micron cores.
To demonstrate this, I showcased the performance from a cllip-on, thermal weapon scope with 640x480 / 25 micron / 50 mK / 30 Hz / Vanadium Oxide core that was produced in 2008, but which had been surplussed due to damage to the lens and display systems ... and which I had upgraded with the following:
1) 150mm (objective) lens system with internal, variable magnification (1-20x). Note that while the outboard magnification of the day scope can be used, the enhancement is the non-digital, variable magnification to the lens system itself. The purpose of the variable, internal magnification is to afford adjustment of the field of view at the raw input level, not at the digital signal processing end. [Equipment Investment = $6,000]
2) Incorporation of an on-board, 2GHz, A8 processor with 4 GB Flash RAM, and a proprietary, lightweight operating system (that I'm coining as 'IR-X') coded and compiled in C/C++. [Equipment Investment = $950]
3) Image management software, optimized for the processor, to apply color palette and edge detection ONLY -- NO other image enhancements which could alter the thermographic accuracy of the heat signature data, slow the processing, and increase the processor's power consumption. [Investment = Labor]
4) VARIABLE interpolation of the 640x480 core input to the following digital, display outputs: 2048x1536, 1704x960, and 1024x768. This is key to optimizing performance with outboard magnification of the image, as any display at 640x480 or 640x512 (regardless of the lens size of the scope) can only be magnified (on currently available LED/OLED mini-display technology) to around 6x before pixelation sets in. [Equipment Investment = $750]
Some actual images from the above system are shown below, taken at a distance of 220 yards (between scope and viewing subject / target), at 15x internal magnification (with no outboard magnification), using a composite "black-hot" and "fire and ice" palette with reverse highlight on edge presentation, and outputting with interpolation to 2048x1536. This is a portable, small-arms mountable system ...
IR-V
Note that the subject is REMOTELY viewing and controlling the output of the thermal imager from a wireless, mobile device while imaging himself. Note the sensing of the heat differences of the vascular system through the subject's skin, and of the subject's upper, right arm through the fabric of his short sleeve.
Note thermal detail of the subject's vascular system (of arteries and veins) captured from 220 yards distance ...
Note how the sensor is able to capture the increases in the amount of heat emitted, in both his arm and its vascular structure, as a result of the subject "exerting" his arm muscles by flexing them and increasing the blood flow. Though the fire (red) and ice (blue) color hues separate warm and cool surfaces at a user-adjustable, mid-point threshold; gradients of warm-hot are from red-white (warm) to red-black (warmest) ...
1) Lens system
2) Core resolution and sensitivity (at nominal capture rate of 30 Hz or higher)
3) Processing power
4) Display resolution
Thermal core (or microbolometer) technology in portable sensors are advancing more rapidly in the area of pitch reduction. In the past couple of years, there have been progressive and rapid reductions from 25 micron, to 17 micron, to 12 micron pitch in production cores. However, the resolution of these cores largely remains in within 640x480 to 640x512, and their thermal sensitivity between 50 - 55 mK.
Until there is a 2x - 4x increase in matrix density, which is 50% to 100% increase in core resolution, advances in other technologies in the image capture and processing "critical path" can be leveraged to dramatically improve thermal image quality and thermal imager performance. Furthermore, enhancement in these other attributes (#1, #3, #4 above) will also compliment and enhance any improvements in the core technology (#1), which means that they are investments that will not be quickly obsoleted by performance advancements in the thermal core.
In layman's terms, this means that with "other" system upgrades, a 640x480 / 25 micron / 50 mK / 30 Hz thermal core produced in 2008 can easily match or surpass the performance of current production "thermal scopes" using 17 and even 12 micron cores.
To demonstrate this, I showcased the performance from a cllip-on, thermal weapon scope with 640x480 / 25 micron / 50 mK / 30 Hz / Vanadium Oxide core that was produced in 2008, but which had been surplussed due to damage to the lens and display systems ... and which I had upgraded with the following:
1) 150mm (objective) lens system with internal, variable magnification (1-20x). Note that while the outboard magnification of the day scope can be used, the enhancement is the non-digital, variable magnification to the lens system itself. The purpose of the variable, internal magnification is to afford adjustment of the field of view at the raw input level, not at the digital signal processing end. [Equipment Investment = $6,000]
2) Incorporation of an on-board, 2GHz, A8 processor with 4 GB Flash RAM, and a proprietary, lightweight operating system (that I'm coining as 'IR-X') coded and compiled in C/C++. [Equipment Investment = $950]
3) Image management software, optimized for the processor, to apply color palette and edge detection ONLY -- NO other image enhancements which could alter the thermographic accuracy of the heat signature data, slow the processing, and increase the processor's power consumption. [Investment = Labor]
4) VARIABLE interpolation of the 640x480 core input to the following digital, display outputs: 2048x1536, 1704x960, and 1024x768. This is key to optimizing performance with outboard magnification of the image, as any display at 640x480 or 640x512 (regardless of the lens size of the scope) can only be magnified (on currently available LED/OLED mini-display technology) to around 6x before pixelation sets in. [Equipment Investment = $750]
Some actual images from the above system are shown below, taken at a distance of 220 yards (between scope and viewing subject / target), at 15x internal magnification (with no outboard magnification), using a composite "black-hot" and "fire and ice" palette with reverse highlight on edge presentation, and outputting with interpolation to 2048x1536. This is a portable, small-arms mountable system ...
IR-V
Note that the subject is REMOTELY viewing and controlling the output of the thermal imager from a wireless, mobile device while imaging himself. Note the sensing of the heat differences of the vascular system through the subject's skin, and of the subject's upper, right arm through the fabric of his short sleeve.
Note thermal detail of the subject's vascular system (of arteries and veins) captured from 220 yards distance ...
Note how the sensor is able to capture the increases in the amount of heat emitted, in both his arm and its vascular structure, as a result of the subject "exerting" his arm muscles by flexing them and increasing the blood flow. Though the fire (red) and ice (blue) color hues separate warm and cool surfaces at a user-adjustable, mid-point threshold; gradients of warm-hot are from red-white (warm) to red-black (warmest) ...
