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Unmanned Systems

Osram and Vergence Automation Develop New Lidar and 4D Camera for Autonomous Vehicles

The pace of autonomous vehicle development is driving new opportunities for established auto suppliers to expand their technology portfolios. Recently...

News

Photonics/Optics

Lights Communicate Hella's Autonomous Vehicle Messages

Imagine autonomously driven vehicles communicating with the human drivers of other vehicles by non-verbal, easy-to-understand messages. It’s a scenario that has lighting supplier...

INSIDER

Photonics/Optics

Army Developing Lasers That Pierce Fog, Dust to Destroy Targets

A lot of people think that high-energy lasers, or HELs, can't penetrate fog, rain and dust, said Thomas Webber, director of the Directed Energy Division's Technical Center,...

Articles

Communications

Identifying and Isolating Signals Using Radio Frequency Photonics

A single antenna can be used for both transmission and reception. To accomplish this, the transmission must be isolated from the reception. In Figure 1, a radio frequency...

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Photonics/Optics

Robot’s Speed-of-Light Communication Could Protect You From Danger

Cornell University researchers are developing a system to enable teams of robots to share information as they move around, and if necessary, interpret what they see. This...

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Photonics/Optics

Heads-up Display Improves Soldiers’ Situational Awareness

A novel technology called "Tactical Augmented Reality," or TAR, is now helping soldiers precisely locate their positions, as well as the locations of friends and foes. It even...

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Test & Measurement

Software Gives Bomb Techs X-Ray Vision

In the chaos that followed the terrorist attack at the 2013 Boston Marathon, bomb squads scanned packages at the scene for explosive devices. Two homemade pressure cooker bombs had killed three people...

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Sensors/Data Acquisition

Shrinking the Inside of an Explosion

Testing explosions is epic science. The most detailed studies of explosive charges have been conducted at national laboratories using a gun as big as a room to fire a flat bullet – the flyer plate,...

Articles

Sensors/Data Acquisition

Next Generation FPGAs for Electronic Warfare Systems

Designers of virtually all electronic warfare system applications exploit CPUs and FPGAs, each offering unique strengths and advantages for handling a wide range of tasks. This diversity...

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Aerospace

Tests Show How Plastic Parts Deform During Flight

Scientists have conducted flights using a measurement configuration based on fiber optics to accurately verify the degree to which carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) parts deform during...

Application Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Embedded Computing Subsystems

GE Intelligent Platforms Huntsville, AL 1-800-433-2682 www.geautomation.com GE’s Intelligent Platforms division recently secured orders from General Dynamics UK valued at £64 million (~$100 million) to provide a...

Technology Update

Photonics/Optics

EOS and MTU Advance Quality Measures for Metal-Based Additive Manufacturing

EOS and MTU Aero Engines have partnered to develop quality-assurance measures for metal engine components using additive manufacturing (AM), signing a framework...

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Medical

Quantum Radar Detects “Invisible” Objects

A prototype quantum radar has the potential to detect objects that are invisible to conventional systems. The new breed of radar is a hybrid system that uses quantum correlation between microwave...

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Imaging

New Serenity Payload Detects Hostile Fire

Two government-developed sensors are working together to increase the security of deployed soldiers. The Firefly and Serenity sensors employ government developed algorithms, software, and hardware to...

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Photonics/Optics

Adaptive Zoom Riflescope Prototype Has Push-Button Magnification

When an Army Special Forces officer‑turned engineer puts his mind to designing a military riflescope, he doesn’t forget the importance of creating something for the soldiers...

News

Transportation

A Hundred Innovations for Renault’s Eolab Concept

When Renault prepares a motor show concept, it invariably does so comprehensively. But for Paris this year it has excelled itself, claiming that its ultra-lightweight Eolab environmental...

Briefs

Software

Computational Cameras

A computational camera uses a combination of optics and software to produce images that cannot be taken with traditional cameras. A variety of computational cameras has been demonstrated; some designed to achieve new...

Briefs

Imaging

Wide-Field Imaging System and Rapid Direction of Optical Zoom

A breadboard system has been developed for demonstrating nonmechanical zoom using flexible thin films. The project consists of three major task areas: material characterization,...

Products

Photonics/Optics

Focus-Tunable Lenses

Edmund Optics® (EO) (Barrington, NJ.) offers two liquid-filled lenses from Optotune of Switzerland. The Electrically Focus-Tunable Lenses provide a single-lens tool for focus and zoom objectives. When the user applies a...

Products

Imaging

Surveillance Sensor

The Hyperspec Point & Stare sensor from Headwall Photonics (Fitchburg, MA) is a fully integrated imaging sensor used for unattended, ground-based surveillance applications. The sensor identifies objects based on the target's...

Products

Photonics/Optics

Color LEDs

OPTEK Technology (Carrollton, TX) has developed a series of color LEDs processed to meet MIL-PRF-19500-level TX and TXV specifications and help military systems engineers achieve high brightness, color illumination, and indication...

Briefs

RF & Microwave Electronics

Outdoor Synthetic Aperture Acoustic Ground Target Measurements

A novel outdoor synthetic aperture acoustic (SAA) system consists of a microphone and loudspeaker traveling along a 6.3-meter rail system. This is an extension of a prior indoor...

Products

Photonics/Optics

Optical Coatings

Deposition Sciences (Santa Rosa, CA) has introduced optical coatings on plastic materials and substrates. The new optical thin-film coatings can be deposited on materials such as Ultem®, Zeonex®, and a variety of...

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Robot Vision System for Precise Object Retrieval in Unmanned Systems

Automating large-scale material handling systems that involve picking up or retrieving items via cranes or robot arms can yield big benefits, particularly in harsh or...

Products

Photonics/Optics

Booth 305

Deposition Sciences (Santa Rosa, CA) offers expanded optical coating services in the Infrared spectrum for defense applications. Coating capabilities range from the ultraviolet (UV), through the visible (VIS), near-infrared (NIR), middle-infrared (MIR or IR), and to the farinfrared (FIR). The companyís patented MicroDyn reactive...

Briefs

RF & Microwave Electronics

Photonic Analog-to-Digital Converters

Early steps have been taken toward the development of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) that would incorporate photonic quantizers based on the technology of InP semiconductors. These photonic ADCs are...

Briefs

Sensors/Data Acquisition

Patterned Gallium Arsenide Devices for Infrared Countermeasures

The US Air Force has a need for improved tunable laser sources—both in the midinfrared region, for developing infrared countermeasure (IRCM) applications, and in the longinfrared...