February 11, 2013
Using publicly available data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have found that six percent of red dwarf stars have habitable, Earth-sized planets. Since red dwarfs are the most common stars in our galaxy, the closest Earth-like planet could be just 13 light-years away.
February 7, 2013
The Surface Optics engineering team has returned after a busy week showcasing SOC’s handheld reflectometers, spectral imagers, and cutting edge thin-film coating technology at the Photonics West 2013 Exhibition in San Francisco, California. Photonics West is hosted by the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) and is the world’s leading biomedical optics, optoelectronics, microfabrication, laser […]
October 18, 2012
Surface Optics recently loaned out an SOC710-VP spectral imaging system to the University of Georgia (UGA) for use in an interdisciplinary study of an ancient Roman sculpture on exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art (GMOA). The exhibition and research, titled “Object in Focus: The Orpheus Relief Project”, investigates evidence of original polychromy on a […]
August 1, 2012
Dr. Jafolla will be participating as an instructor in the course “Infrared/Visible Signature Suppression” offered by the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA), Sept. 11-14, 2012. Course lectures will examine threat characteristics to derive signature vulnerabilities, suppression strategies, and priorities. Explore signature-generation mechanisms and modeling techniques, as well as special types of challenges posed by […]
July 6, 2012
Launched June 13, 2012, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has captured it’s first images of a black hole in the high energy X-ray (5 – 80 keV) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Surface Optics, in cooperation with ManTech International Corporation and it’s subsidiary NeXolve, developed the protective thermal covers in-use on the NuSTAR […]
December 13, 2011
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.
August 17, 2009
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 […]
April 22, 2009
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 […]
September 13, 2007
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 […]
January 1, 2007
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 […]