LUMILANT, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: Hyperspectral imaging systems acquire the spatial and spectral information of the image sc

Description

Hyperspectral imaging systems acquire the spatial and spectral information of the image scene simultaneously, and thus find important applications in remote sensing, military surveillance, and target identification. Most contemporary hyperspectral imaging systems operate at UV/VIS/NIR (ultra violet/visible/near infrared) spectrums. However, in many cases, especially in military applications, (hyper)-spectral sensing in the longer wavelengths range, such as middle wavelength IR (MWIR) or long wavelength IR (LWIR) spectrums, is of more interest. This is because long wavelengths electro-magnetic (EM) waves suffer less loss when penetrating through the contaminated atmospheric environment (fog, sand storm, dust, etc) of the battlefield. Moreover, presently there is a drive for putting these imaging systems on a wide range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) where their use depends on the characteristics of the many different surveillance and reconnaissance applications. The main discriminators are the operational flight duration and range, the altitude, and the payload capabilities. These features determine the feasible design of the sensor systems to be used on the platform.