Surface Optics Gives Sneak Peek of First Commercial Multimodal Snapshot Spectral Imaging and Polarization Imager at SPIE DCS 2018

At last week’s SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing in Orlando, Surface Optics Corporation previewed for conference attendees LVIRA™, the first commercial multimodal snapshot spectral imager. LVIRA, short for Light Field Visible Infrared Apparatus, collects spectral, light field and polarization information to achieve improved classification performance over standard spectral imaging systems. These multi-dimensional datasets are captured and processed at video rates so LVIRA can be applied to dynamic and online monitoring environments. SPIE attendees saw demonstrations of the camera’s capabilities at the Surface Optics booth and a presentation on LVIRA’s multiple optical sensing modes was included in the conference session, Algorithms and Technologies for Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Imagery.
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“During the last decade, push-broom type systems have been the prevailing hyperspectral technology used by the research community. The substantial body of scientific literature produced around these systems shows hyperspectral imaging as an attractive solution for characterization, classification and quality control in a variety of disciplines,” said Erin Dummer, Director of Marketing at Surface Optics. “But no matter how compact the hardware, the fundamental nature of push-broom systems requires time to scan a scene and produces large data cubes. Both factors are prohibitive for applying the technology in time-sensitive environments such as agricultural and industrial processing.”

To increase the processing and analysis time for hyperspectral images, is it is typical for researchers to reduce the data by identifying the key spectral wavelengths that are optimal for characterizing their object of interest.

“What researchers have found is that they don’t need hundreds of continuous spectral bands to solve a problem, that selecting a handful of feature wavelengths will achieve higher accuracy, faster, than using the full spectra,” explained Dummer. “We see LVIRA as the successor to push-broom cameras because it uses filters to collect only those established spectral wavelengths relevant to the application and further increases classification accuracy by incorporating features extracted from polarization and light-field data. With video-rate acquisition and processing of up to 30fps, LVIRA is the ideal platform for researchers seeking to mature a spectral imaging solution for production level application.”

LVIRA is scheduled for full commercial release in July 2018 and will be the first model released in a line of UV to LWIR multimodal snapshot spectral imagers.