Surface Optics Corporation Marks 40th Anniversary Of Company Founding

In 2017, Surface Optics Corporation is commemorating its 40th Anniversary and celebrating the contributions we’ve made to optical property characterization technology as well as the achievements of our customers over the last four decades. Surface Optics was incorporated on May 5, 1977, in San Diego, California, and is in large part a company born out of the Space Race and the extensive research efforts made by the United States to land a man on the moon.

This achievement was the result of thousands of men and women at many aerospace firms working to solve the intricate technical challenges of Project Apollo. During this time at the Convair Division of General Dynamics, Dr. Ternay Neu and Mr. Dick Dummer developed optical property modeling that served as a backup system to Apollo 11’s primary radar for rendezvous and docking of the Lunar Module with the Command Module.

In 1977, Neu and Dummer took their combined expertise and founded Surface Optics Corporation to provide optical property measurements to the military and aerospace industries. A major contract in those early years (and continuing today) was providing crucial software and measurements for the Ballistic Missile Defense agency’s Optical Signature Code (OSC) program.

A Timeline of SOC Milestones

What’s Ahead

Over the last forty years Surface Optics Corporation has expanded its capabilities beyond the original lab to keep pace with the needs of our customers. We have evolved into a ‘one stop shop’ for services and products related to optical property characterization and continue to develop innovative technology that pushes the field forward.

A core business area for Surface Optic Corporation is spectral imaging technology, a global market projected to grow from USD 7.41 Billion in 2016 to 12.71 Billion by 2021. Our disruptive, patented technology is transforming the way spectral imaging is done. We have developed the first camera to combine the power of light field with spectral imaging, capturing the direction, color spectrum and brightness of the rays of light within a field of view. Combined with our patented real time processor we have created a unique video rate light field spectral camera relevant to the application challenges of industrial customers.

Surface Optics spectral imaging platform has the potential to become ubiquitous in the years to come in medical imaging, machine vision, agriculture and military sensing and we are already hard at work on what’s coming next.