The world's largest infrared camera may soon be helping to keep America safe.
That's just one of the latest products sprouting from a collaboration between the University of Dayton's IDCAST and its partners in business, government and academia.
Two-year-old IDCAST � short for the Institute for the Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology � accelerates the development and commercialization of camera and sensor technologies for private and government entities. In partnership with the UD Research Institute, the Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate, and other university, government and military entities -- IDCAST has fast become an organization that matters.
Initially made possible by $28-million in state grants, "we've created more than 250 jobs, 36 in academia and 215 in industry," says Larrell Walters, the center's executive director.
That brings us back to the world's largest infrared camera.
L-3 Cincinnati Electronics, a division of L-3 Communications Corp., is developing the camera with the help of a $4.2-million grant made through IDCAST. It's only the latest in sophisticated imaging devices the company has built for the surveillance needs of private and government clients.
Dubbed "Night Stare," the camera boasts a 25 megapixel resolution (that's 25 million pixels), but by panning its target in a four-step pattern can supply an image reaching 100 megapixels, says John Devitt, the company's engineering manager.
What does that mean? The next biggest infrared camera provides just over 300,000 pixels � about the resolution of a traditional TV screen. Devitt "we should make delivery of a prototype this year."
Sources: Larrell Walters, John Divett
Writer: Gene Monteith