STI and Navy look for whales
Science & Technology International (STI; Honolulu, HI) has begun a mission along the northeastern coastline of Florida to locate and study the behaviors of whales, under a U.S. Navy contract, using its 200-ft-long airship (blimp) outfitted with STI's hyperspectral imaging camera system. The hyperspectral camera system detects submerged objects in real-time and has also been used to locate submarines and mines for the U.S. Navy. The Florida mission is focused on protecting the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale as well as identifying the migration patterns of other whales.
DICUT to use USC detection technology
The Detect-X Division of DICUT (Marietta, GA) has entered into a licensing agreement with the University of South Carolina (USC; Columbia, SC) through the USC Research Foundation that gives Detect-X the exclusive worldwide rights to manufacture, market, and sell USC detection technology to create devices with the ability to unobtrusively scan objects and identify the presence of bacterial agents such as anthrax and biological toxins such as ricin, as well as explosives and narcotics.
OminVision camera chips head for handsets
OmniVision Technologies (Sunnyvale, CA), is supplying its VGA CameraChip modules in high volumes to privately held Pantech & Curitel (Seoul, Korea) to be embedded in their mobile phone handsets. By integrating the camera directly into the phone, Curitel handsets are able to take advantage of 330,000 pixels at 33-fps preview capabilities; 30 fps is considered the necessary speed for the human eye to interpret the changing frames as continuous motion.
Analogic inks more security agreements
Analogic (Peabody, MA) has entered an agreement with Sanders Design International (Wilton, NH) for the development, manufacture, and deployment of an aircraft infrared countermeasures (IRCM) system for the protection of commercial airliners against shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missiles. Analogic also has a strategic marketing agreement with Lockheed Martin (Bethesda, MD) for threat-detection products.
Applied Multilayers to offer coatings
Applied Multilayers (Kidderminster, England) has been formed to offer a range of optical-coating equipment using "closed field "reactive sputtering technology. The coating systems from Applied Multilayers will be used in applications such as antireflection coatings, flat-panel displays, LCD projection systems, visible/thermal control coatings for low cost imaging systems, infrared sensors, and photovoltaics.
MicroOptical forms HUD partnerships
MicroOptical (Westwood, MA) and Instrument Technology (ITI; Westfield, MA) are partnering to provide heads-up displays (HUD) for covert surveillance and staging tactical assault in the law enforcement, SWAT, and explosives ordinance and disposal industries. MicroOptical is also partnering with Interactive Imaging Systems (IIS; Rochester, NY) to create a head-mounted display to connect to a PDA without the need of a second power source.
Corning to make MOEMS for Xerox consortium
Corning IntelliSense (Wilmington, MA), a subsidiary of Corning (Corning, NY), has been chosen to manufacture MOEMS (micro-optoelectromechanical systems) devices by a consortium led by Xerox (Stamford, CT). The consortium, which also includes Microscan Systems (Renton, WA) and Coventor (Research Triangle Park, NC), is part of a $14 million five-year cost-shared National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; Gaithersburg, MD) Advanced Technology Program formed in 1998 and focused on developing a robust, low-cost process for the efficient manufacture and rapid commercialization of MOEMS for use in telecommunications, imaging, medicine, entertainment, and information systems.
Also in the news . . .
Indigo Systems (Goleta, CA) has been awarded a major contract by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems (Baltimore, MD) to deliver infrared detector assemblies for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a multi-role, supersonic stealth aircraft designed for U.S. and foreign military services. . . . Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, CA) has acquired exclusive rights to absolute encoder technology from Optolab Microsystems (Erfurt, Germany) for use in industrial automation applications later this year. . . . Micron Technology (Boise, ID) has announced a series of cost-reduction initiatives to further capitalize on its aggressive migration to 0.11-µm manufacturing process technology that include reducing worldwide workforce levels by approximately 10%. . . . Foveon (Santa Clara, CA) has announced a license agreement for the manufacture and distribution of Foveon's image sensor technology to National Semiconductor (Santa Clara, CA).