Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: A16-086

Description

To address the Army need for a high spatial fidelity scene simulator for hardware-in-the-loop testing, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new High-Fidelity Reconfigurable Dynamic Scene Projector (HIRASP) system based on a novel integration of broadband light sources, spatial light modulators (SLMs) and zoom projection optics with multispectral image co-registration. By innovative implementation of high dynamic range SLMs for pixelwise optical modulation and resolution enhancement, HIRASP enables large resolution (4k x 4k projection of dynamic scene (>12-bit) at high frame rates (>120 Hz). The modular design enables the projection of dynamic imagery over the broad wavelength range covering multispectral bands (i.e., UV, visible, NIR, SWIR, MWIR, LWIR), and also makes the system reconfigurable (projecting multispectral scenes simultaneously, in sequence, or selectively) and easy to set up and move. The zoom projection optics makes the system adaptive to the various fields of regard needed. In Phase I, POC plans to establish the technical feasibility of HIRASP by analyzing system and selecting an optimum design approach, developing top-level system design, modeling and simulation, and predicting the overall performance based on the choice of key simulator components. In Phase II, a working HIRASP prototype will be developed and demonstrated for evaluation.