Background
For military operations to be successful today, individual soldiers and combat units as a whole need state-of-the-art equipment for enhanced vision capabilities day and night. The challenge DRDC set for us was to design a device that can detect a target before it becomes a potential threat to soldiers and quickly identify this target before taking action in order to reduce soldiers’ vulnerability and thereby increase their chances of survival.
Solution
In collaboration with DRDC, INO developed an intensified thermal/visible imaging system that combines uncooled infrared imaging technology (8–12 µm) and intensified imagers (0.4–0.9 µm) in a single device. Image intensification is a complementary technology to thermal vision, which makes it possible to identify targets by improving vision in conditions of partial and or near-total darkness. Thermal vision requires no illumination, which allows for passive mode observation. In addition, infrared imaging is particularly well adapted to detecting targets in environments with smoke, dust, mist, fog, or other constraints. Combining both of these technologies in a single device delivers maximum effective range.