Optikos to design focus verification system for ITT
Optikos (Cambridge, MA), a manufacturer of equipment for the measurement of optical image quality, was awarded a contract from ITT’s System Division (Colorado Springs, CO) for the design and production of an optical-focus verification system (OFVS) for telescope-to-film and telescope-to-CCD camera image plane alignment. The contract is in support of the 45th U.S. Air Force Space Wing operations at the Eastern Range, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The OFVS will be used on five large-aperture launch-tracking telescopes that support all launches from Cape Canaveral, FL, including the Space Shuttle.
FITEL camera flies aboard Atlantis
Logging its third NASA space mission with the recent launch of the Atlantis shuttle, FITEL’s (Peachtree City, GA) 1480 nm laser is a key component in the Neptec (Ottawa, ON, Canada) camera system used onboard the shuttle to scan critical areas for exterior damage.
The strength of the laser in the camera system enables the capture of three-dimensional data images of the shuttle’s surface from up to 4 m away in harsh glare and intermittent lighting conditions. “The FITEL laser-diode module is a critical component in the Laser Camera System and continues to meet NASA’s exacting standards for performance in the demanding environment of space,” said Iain Christie, vice president of research and development.
Homeland Security awards surveillance grant
Geospatial Systems (GSI; Rochester, NY) was awarded a $100,000 Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Grant from the U.S. Homeland Security, Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA). If it progresses to Phase II, the total award would be nearly $1 million. An STTR is for small businesses to partner with universities to develop new technology. It is very similar to a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant, but with more latitude to fund the university partner.
The award is for an Incident Surveillance Management System (ISMS) that will provide geospatially relevant data in real time-by way of the mobile ground station-to responding Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff, and to local first responders, and to simultaneously deliver that same real time geo-spatially relevant imagery to FEMA staff in conference rooms from Washington, D.C., to Washington State and beyond. GSI is partnering with Pennsylvania State University’s Electro-Optics Center.
Cedip reports healthy sales in first half 2006
A supplier of infrared camera systems, Cedip (Croissy Beaubourg, France) announced consolidated sales of $9.7 million for the first six months of 2006, representing a growth of 19% compared to the first half of 2005. Exports represented 86% of sales, with particularly strong growth reported for the Asia/Pacific region.
In addition, Cedip announced the signing of a $1 million contract for supply of IR equipment to a research center of the American army.
Machine-vision market on an uphill climb
According to machine-vision consultancy Vision Systems International (VSI; Yardley, PA), the North American machine-vision market is forecast to grow as much as 12% in 2006, reaching a total value of approximately $1.5 billion. Unlike the North American robot market, which has declined this year, the North American machine-vision market is piggybacking on the growth in capital spending especially in the semiconductor industry this year as well as somewhat on growth in capital spending in the electronic industry. These two industries have traditionally accounted for the largest percentage of the machine-vision market.
Also in the news . . .
DALSA (Waterloo, ON, Canada) is eliminating the DALSA Coreco logo/brand and will be marketing all of its products under the DALSA brand. . . . SensL (Cork, Ireland), a provider of low-light photon detection sensors and modules, expanded its distributor network to support worldwide growth in demand with new distributors, including Tokyo Instruments (Japan), GMP (Switzerland), Unifibre (Italy), LASERTechnology (Spain), Gamble Technologies (Canada), SeongKyeong Photonics (Korea), Lahat Technologies (Israel), and Shanghai Weining Technology Development Co. (China). . . . Image sensors from U.K.-based e2v (Chelmsford, England) were launched with the Solar-B space mission to study the Sun. . . . Luminus Devices (Woburn, MA) joined the Micro Device DisPlay Consortium (MDDPC; www.md-display.com), a membership-based industry group made up of leading companies aimed at expanding the microdisplay television market. . . . Microvision (Redmond, WA), a developer of technologies for display and imaging products, has entered into a development agreement with a major automotive supplier to develop a commercial scanned-beam head-up display (HUD).