Plastics have long been receiving attention due to their abundance in daily use, as well as their loss to the environment as debris. Plastic pollution is widely accepted as an environmental crisis, particularly in marine environments as millions of tons of plastics enter the oceans annually. Although some macro plastics can be determined using visible-range […]

Space-based construction materials must meet a range of requirements: mechanical robustness, lightweight characteristics, and tolerance to heat. There are three optical requirements for heat management to protect sensitive instrumentation and personnel: high solar reflectance, high thermal emissivity, and a sufficiently diffuse surface. These properties ensure that the spacecraft will remain cool, and the thermal control […]

Most plastics are typically transparent in the visible spectral range, rendering them challenging to detect using silicon-based vision sensors. In this work a SWIR hyperspectral imaging system is used to collect the SWIR hyperspectral signatures as well as spatial information of a variety of plastics outdoors to test this technology for plastic debris detection and […]

Reflectance imaging spectroscopy (RIS) in the visible and near infrared is revolutionizing the way cultural heritage investigators may analyze paintings nondestructively. In an ongoing, highly collaborative project, the authors are investigating a painting by American artist John White Alexander (1856–1915). The painting, titled A Study in Pink, is in the collection of the Virginia Museum […]

Determining the optical properties of complex surfaces for signature analysis can be problematic. Materials with surface structures, e.g, crinkled or patterned foil appliques, or striated or ribbed surfaces will produce a non-isotropic BRDF, which can be difficult to measure and represent in signature models. This paper will describe an analytical approach to predicting the optical […]

The Spectral-Polarimetric Hypersensor (SPH) is a new compact, solid state, video rate imaging system with no moving parts capable of capturing up to 16 bands of both spectral and polarimetric content simultaneously. For these imagers, which are an adaptation of a plenoptic system, all elements for a given super pixel sample the same point in […]

Red blotch disease is a viral disease that affects grapevines. Symptoms appear as irregular blotches on grape leaves with pink and red veins on the underside of the leaves. Red blotch disease causes a reduction in the accumulation of sugar in grapevines affecting the quality of grapes and resulting in delayed harvest. Detecting and monitoring […]

A new method has been developed for a direct and remote measurement of industrial flare combustion efficiency (CE). The method is based on a unique hyper-spectral or multi-spectral Infrared (IR) imager which provides a high frame rate, high spectral selectivity and high spatial resolution. The method can be deployed for short-term flare studies or for […]

Food safety and quality in packaged products are paramount in the food processing industry. To ensure that packaged products are free of foreign materials, such as debris and pests, unwanted materials mixed with the targeted products must be detected before packaging. A portable hyperspectral imaging system in the visible-to-NIR range has been used to acquire […]

We describe a unique approach to hyperspectral optical microscopy, herein achieved by coupling a hyperspectral imager to various optical microscopes. Hyperspectral fluorescence micrographs of isolated fluorescent beads are first employed to ensure spectral calibration of our detector and to gauge the attainable spatial resolution of our measurements. Different science applications of our instrument are then […]

The article “Advanced Large Area Deposition Technology for Astronomical and Space Applications”, authored by Surface Optics Corporation’s R & D Engineer Michael L. Fulton and Coatings Lab Manager Richard S. Dummer, describes SOC’s design of a unique 3.3 meter diameter chamber, equipped with an e-beam, resistance source, and Ion Assisted Deposition (IAD) system mounted on a movable stage.

The hypersensor camera operates with a unique multispectral imaging modality developed recently at Surface Optics Corporation. The Hypersensor camera is small, low cost, rugged, and solid state, using micro-optics and an array of spectral filters, which captures a complete multispectral cube of spatial and spectral data with every focal plane exposure. The prototype VNIR Hypersensor […]

The application of advanced low observable treatments to ground vehicles has led to a requirement for a better understanding of effects of light scattering from surfaces. Measurements of the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) fully describe the angular scattering properties of materials, and these may be used in signature simulations to quantitatively characterize the optical […]

Evolutionary computation can increase the speed and accuracy of pattern recognition in multispectral images, for example, in automatic target tracking. The first method treats the clustering process. It determines a cluster of pixels around specified reference pixels so that the entire cluster is increasingly representative of the search object. An initial population (of clusters) evolves […]

Photosynthetic efficiency of higher plants dynamically adapts to changing light intensity and is greatly influenced by stress, such as water stress. We tested a new portable hyperspectral imaging system, the SOC-700, manufactured by Surface Optics, which produces 12-bit reflectance images between 440 nm and 880 nm with a 4 nm spectral resolution. We quantified the […]

A novel, compact visible multispectral, polarimetric camera is under development. The prototype is capable of megapixel imaging with sixteen wavebands and three polarimetric images. The entire system encompasses a volume less than 125mm x 100mm x 75mm. The system is based on commercial megapixel class CMOS sensors and incorporates real time processing of hyperspectral cube […]

As an offshoot of hyperspectral imaging, which typically acquires tens to slightly more than 100 spectral bands, ultraspectral imaging, with typically more than 1000 bands, provides the ability to use molecular or atomic lines to identify surface or airborne contaminants. Surface Optics Corporation has developed a very high-speed Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) imaging system. This […]

Abstract Hyperspectral imaging in the 2-5 um band has held interest for applications in detection and discrimination of objects of interest. Real time instrumentation is particularly powerful as a tool for characterization and field measurement. A compact, real-time, refractive MWIR hyperspectral imaging instrument has been designed and tested. The system has been designed for cryogenic […]

Hyperspectral imaging in the 2-5 um band has held interest for applications in detection and discrimination of targets. Real time instrumentation is particularly powerful as a tool for characterization and field measurement. A compact, real-time, refractive MWIR hyperspectral imaging instrument has been designed and is undergoing integration and test. The system has been designed for […]

The advancement of computer simulation tools for high fidelity signature modeling has led to a requirement for a better understanding of effects of light scattering from surfaces. Measurements of the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) fully describe the angular scattering properties of materials, and these may be used in signature simulations to quantitatively characterize the […]

Multispectral imaging is a well accepted technique for object discrimination. Hyperspectral imaging can result in highly complex optical systems that have frame rate limitations. For fast frame rate applications, dual band imaging can provide sufficient discrimination without sacrificing signal to noise ratio. The design of a fast frame rate (> 200 Hz) SWIR/MWIR and MWIR/LWIR […]

The Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) is a limb-sounding radiometer sensing emissions in the millimeter and sub- millimeter range. MLS will contribute to an understanding of atmospheric chemistry by assessing stratospheric and tropospheric ozone depletion, climate forcings and volcanic effects. The heart of the antenna is the primary reflector, constructed from graphite/cyanate composites in a facesheet/core […]

This paper presents a description of a fully automated, computer-controlled Hemispherical Directional Reflectometer (HDR). It fills the need in many fields of research and development for a device with HDR measurement capabilities which is state-of-the-art in wavelength coverage to 25.0 μm and higher, angular polarization resolved coverage 20 to 80 degrees, partition of reflected radiation […]

Commonly used methods of developing paints and evaluating their performance involve calculating the signatures of vehicles and backgrounds, this requires experimental determination of the directional and bidirectional reflectance of the surfaces involved. This paper describes the measurements required, the instruments used to make such measurements, and computer codes and techniques used for paint development and […]