Military-grade IR cameras & lenses seen at DSEI defence show - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 07:52:22 am
content: I had the rare privilege of being let loose with a (visible light) camera at the DSEI defence show in London yesterday. I didn't photograph everything - I only had a few hours - but there were some interesting cameras and lenses.One of the most impressive cameras I saw was the tiny MWIR 'Sparrow' by SCD. The linear Stirling cooler is about the size of your thumb. Resolution is 640x512 and it's described as a 'HOT' (high operating temperature) camera. Not hot as in room temperature, of course. Otherwise, why include a Stirling cooler...?

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 07:53:54 am
content: Also with very impressive quality (720p if I remember right) was the MWIR CheetIR-L (the one on the left).

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 07:54:53 am
content: And of course there were cameras with germanium lenses big enough to bankrupt a small country.Perhaps the best IQ I saw was from the very impressive Leonardo camera.

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 08:00:59 am
content: All of these photographs were taken with the express permission of the stand staff. Just snapping away randomly at one of the world's largest defence industry shows is ... er ... discouraged.There were of course plenty of other interesting toys - lots and lots of drones from pocket size to the size of a double bed; I saw an autonomous speedboat, underwater drones, fighting vehicles all the way up to a Challenger 2 tank, and loads of comms gear including possibly the most impressive software defined radio display I've ever seen. Those screens are w--i--d--e--!

author: bap2703
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 10:18:51 am
content: These displays indeed look handy to look at time domain signals. Who needs a 'zoom' tool?

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 10:28:46 am
content: Could use those for looking at ModelSim simulations too! Signal list, project structure and source code on the left, waveforms on the right...

author: Vipitis
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 10:49:02 am
content: That is such a great opportunity. Although a pretty scary premise.Have you had any chance to spot the Tenum at Leonardo/DRS? Or even Sierra Olympic with the VayuHD?

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 11:03:42 am
content: @Vipitis No, I didn't see those. I only spotted the one camera on the (quite big) Leonardo stand and Sierra Olympic weren't at the show. They may have been represented by somebody, but with a low enough profile that I missed them.I did however say hi to the guys at Opgal, home of the Therm-App.

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 11:18:09 am
content: Absolutely beautiful. Thankyou Ultrapurple.Something of interest: the CheetIRL image is high-passed to try and crush the dynamic range down. Note the dark halos around hot objects (and the fact the distant people are just as hot as close ones). More accurately: it looks like pixels above a certain brightness threshold (max monitor brightness) are having their local gaussian region divided down until they hit this threshold.Whatever makes prettier promos I guess, do whatever filtering suits your purpose. This wouldn't be useful for accurate absolute temperature sensing (like for repairing electronics), but it seems to work for people-watching.

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 11:29:27 am
content: @Whales - yes, all very true. However I seem to recall that at least one version of the CheetIR-L is radiometric. I certainly saw it (or a close relative) being demoed with a mouse moving round the screen showing the temperature of individual pixels. It may well be that the display mode was simply switched to "pretty" for the reasons you suggest. Butthe launch press releasedoesn't mention radiometric capability (though it does say it's a 10µm SXGA HOT sensor and equipped with a 13.5x continuous optical zoom).There's another press release herewith more technical information. It's very interesting to note that the PDF supporting the press release is marked as MOD/Crown Copyright 2018.

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 11:47:44 am
content: @Whales - I should have made it clear that the off-screen photo almost certainly has some white crushing. I'll re-process the RAW camera file and see.

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 11:49:58 am
content: @Ultrapurple: both of your links are the same.> I should have made it clear that the off-screen photo almost certainly has some white crushing. I'll re-process the RAW camera file and see.Ah, could also be processing from after the photons left the screenRe radiometric: I wonder if they oversize the optics to avoid vignetting, or (assuming the optics are expensive) counter-vignette in software. I have no idea if that ruins your ability to accurately tell temperature in areas other than the middle or not.Reading your link: I'm getting a vibe of "if you have to ask for the price, you can't afford it". I remember reading/listening (AmpHour?) to a story about a student back from when LEDs were new and a research curiosity. He wrote a letter to one of the researchers asking if he could have one, and they said yes. These cameras are like that, right?

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 11:57:29 am
content: Coming Aug 2021. The man who stole the IR-inhibiting nano-spiders. His demise will be the dark web.

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 12:10:41 pm
content: I took a series of shots of the screen (why take one when you can take six?)Here I've re-processed one as a 100% crop from the RAW file with -1ev exposure and all the geometry correction etc turned off. You can just about see the vertical stripes of the LCD screen. It doesn't look all that different from the first version in terms of dynamic range - and the visible light camera was definitely not peaking out.My suspicion is that there was a certain amount of white crushing going on in the monitor, though I doubt very much whether it's the only reason faces etc are peaked out.On the just-for-asking issue, I asked the Opgal guy - clearly a senior person - whether the Therm-App camera had originally been designed as a freebie they could give away at exhibitions etc. He said words to the effect that Marketing would love to be able to do that but Management said no. That said, I suspect if I'd turned up with a VIP badge, an entourage and enough gold braid on my uniform, they might have suddenly found a Therm-App at the back of the stand that I could take home to play with...

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 12:15:42 pm
content: Sorry Whales, you're wrong. The spider-infested IR-proof man was standing here:But you're probably right about the Dark Web.

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2019, 12:33:56 pm
content: *squints*Guy with backpack: "Why is no-one noticing the naked guy covered in spiders?"Friend next to him: "Hmm? Oh that's Brendan, he's into far-infrared mineral spectroscopy. Always gets 'lost' at the wrong conference to annoy the near-IR guys. Don't make eye-contact, he'll start chittering."

author: ArsenioDev
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2019, 08:57:42 pm
content: Oh hey! Ultrapurple is another frequenter of the defense expos. I go to a LOT of the ones around DC, not many places I can have a play with tech that I will never afford or get a hold of, or even pick the brains of other engineers on my wonky fascinations. I too rarely get to go with my VIS systems, and have a personal archive of very nice hardware photos

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2019, 09:12:47 pm
content: Quote from: Ultrapurple on September 13, 2019, 08:00:59 amIt's common courtesy, but there's no real point worrying about it unless you strip search all visitors. Spy cameras and multi-frame super-resolution have gotten pretty good as well.

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2019, 07:27:15 am
content: Quote from: Marco on September 16, 2019, 09:12:47 pmTrue, however some of the photographs (not shown here!) were taken on the understanding that they were not for any kind of publication, and the terms & conditions of entry are very clear on the matter of photography. So much so that I was debating whether or not to take a camera.I'm reasonably certain that there was nothing on general display that you couldn't request a brochure for. Some items had bits blanked off ("Martian Death Ray module fits here") to remove sensitive bits from sight.There were many stands I decided it was unwise to try and photograph - for example, those with small arms like pistols - not only because firearms are treated very, very differently in the UK from (say) the USA, but also because I couldn't be certain I wouldn't inadvertently catch in the background someone who reallydidn'twant to be photographed. There were many people with copious gold braid, entourages and VIP passes: I expect in their own countries anyone who took an unauthorised photo of them would be gently led away and have things patiently explained to them over tea and cakes. Then shot.