Projet ARGUS- IS: le revoila!!! ObjectVideo wins DARPA contract to support next-gen surveillance system

Source: Military and Aerospace newsletter

Je ne suis pas etonnee que ObjectVideo soit interesse par Vigiscan....

ObjectVideo Inc. has received a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to provide the ground station component for a new class of aircraft-based surveillance systems being developed under DARPA's Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) program. The ARGUS-IS program's goal is to develop a compact system combining a multi-gigapixel, high-resolution sensor; wide-field optics; an ultra-high-bandwidth, real-time airborne processing system; and a ground station for interactive multitarget designation, tracking, and exploitation.

The airborne processing system can simultaneously and continuously detect and track the presence and motion of thousands of small or large targets over an area covering tens of square miles. ObjectVideo will provide the system's ground station capabilities that will display, analyze, manipulate, and archive the data gathered from the airborne surveillance components. ObjectVideo's intelligent video software suite will be used to boost the productivity of ARGUS-IS in several important ways, including automated alerting, intelligent data reduction and video forensics.

"The ability to perform persistent surveillance over large areas is vital to the continued success of U.S. Forces and ObjectVideo is proud to be a part of the program that will exponentially enhance the capabilities of existing systems," says Paul Brewer, ObjectVideo co-founder and vice president of new technology. "ARGUS will produce an enormous amount of data to be processed and leveraged by the ground station, creating a pressing need for automation and data reduction based on intelligent video analysis. Effective ground-based processing of video data will be a key part of the overall system success."

The objective of the ARGUS-IS program is to develop a high-resolution, wide-area video persistent surveillance capability that will provide joint forces with real-time situational awareness and a means to keep critical areas of interest under constant surveillance with a high degree of target location accuracy.

Article de Peter So sur le Brillouin bioimaging!

Source: Nature Photonics

Une nouvelle technique de microscopie permet de voir les proprietes mecaniques des tissus vivants.

L'article, p.13 a 14, explique la technique. Je peux vous le scanner si vous le souhaitez.
p.39 et suivantes, on notera un second article sur la question par Giuliano Scarcelli et Seok Hyun Yun intitule: Confocal Bbrillouin microscopy for 3 dimensional mechanical image. L'article est beaucoup plus detaille.

On remarque une pub d'une page entiere de OKO.

Nouvelle publication: BioOptics World

Source: BioOptics World

Dans cette nouvelle publication inauguree durant Photonic West, on trouvera des articles interessants sur:
Biomedical optics projects find federal champions, p.18
James Fujimoto (on ne desespere pas de decrocher un RDV avec le demi-dieu), p.20-21. J'apprends qu'il etait etudiant de Erich Ippen, et vous savez quoi? Erich Ippen est open pour une recontre avec Amplitude. Eric Ippen est LE dieu du femtoseconde dans le coin.
OCT Imaging leaps to the next generation, article de Wolgang Drexler

Ultrafast lasers: it's just the beginning

On aime bien les titres comme ca....

Source: optics.org

"Ultrafast lasers will become an industry worth $100 billion by 2015." That bold assertion was made by Scott Davison, president of ultrafast start-up Raydiance, speaking at today's Lasers and Photonics Marketplace Seminar.

Davison believes that ultrafast lasers have reached what he calls the "silicon moment" - the tipping point where miniaturization and automation enables the technology to be adopted in mainstream applications. This is the time, he says, when investment dollars transforms what starts off as a geeky enthusiasm into a relevant technology.

To hit the $100 billion mark, though, Davison advocates a radically different business model. Instead of laser firms recording one-off income from hardware sales, he says that ongoing revenues could be achieved by charging some sort of "royalty" every time the laser is used. I'm not convinced that it'll catch on.

Back in the real world, Andreas Tünnermann of the Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Physics in Germany showed just how far ultrafast lasers have come in the past few years. While ultrafast lasers have long shown huge potential for micromachining applications, early versions suffered from low repetition rates and low average power - which meant that it could take several minutes to drill a single hole.

Now, however, the introduction of ultrafast fiber lasers has increased the average power to tens and even hundreds of watts, while repetition rates have risen to hundreds of kilohertz. As a result, a hole in a 0.5 mm thick piece of stainless steel can be drilled in just 800 ms.

Dennis Matthews of the Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis, then spoke about the opportunities for ultrafast lasers in bioscience and medicine. Matthews pointed out that sub-picosecond lasers have already become ubiquitous for bioimaging applications such as multiphoton fluorescence microscopy, and at the same time are increasingly being used to generate other forms of radiation, including X-rays, terahertz radiation, and even protons for radiotherapy treatment.

Matthews says that ultrafast lasers could also play an important role in laser therapy, particularly as more compact turnkey solutions become available. Cost issues remain, though: he reckons that the price tag for an ultrafast laser system will need to fall to $30-50k for dentistry applications and $70-100k for surgical use.

MULTIPHOTON AND CARS: Ultrafast lasers enhance biological microscopy

Source: Biooptics world

Recent advances in "one-box" ultrafast laser technology has resulted in models that offer longer wavelength tuning than ever before as well as lasers delivering ultrashort pulses with spectral bandwidth greater than 120 nm.

Biophotonics Shines at PWest

Source: biophotonics.com

While the biophotonics community had the stage to itself during the BIOS portion of Photonics West, the technology was well represented at the Photonics West exhibition. A great many companies better known for their nonmedical products were showing products aimed at the biomedical area.

And the portion of some firms' involvement in the biophotonics field was surprising -- in some cases as much as 10 to 15 percent of sales. Indeed, the biomedical story was not contained only in the BIOS portion of Photonics West. Biophotonics appears to be poised to become an important segment of the overall photonics industry.

Just a few of those companies and products found on the exhibit floor at Photonics West:

Opnext of Japan, which introduced its HL7001/7002 MG laser diode designed for use in medical applications such as blood analysis and endoscopy. According to the company, the 705-nm diode laser permits smaller biomedical measuring devices while offering high output power, reliability and the low operating current required by medical applications.

Scotland-based Intense Ltd. announced its Power Pack 360, a fiber-coupled laser module, which is aimed at medical and display applications such as photodynamic therapy and medical imaging. The device provides up to 2.5 W at 630 nm from a 600-µm fiber. A turnkey system, it combines a forced-air heat sink and cooling fan, monitor photodiode, thermoelectric cooler and thermistor. According to the company, the system provides medical system developers with a turnkey package, which can reduce overall system cost.

Texas Instruments was displaying a device from one of its customers that employed its digital light processing (DLP) technology in an imaging system that directly illuminates veins and arteries. The company’s digital micromirrors -- such as the Discovery 4000 highlighted at the show -- will, TI says, provide developers with a tool to develop projection and spectroscopic applications across a broad spectrum of wavelengths.

Acceleware of Calgary, Alberta, presented its Accelerator, which it said can bring supercomputing to the desktop. The company cited uses of its product in research involving early detection of breast cancer and the development of implantable medical devices.

Photonics West moves to San Francisco

C'est vrai que les tentes dehors c'etait pas le top.

Source: optics.org

Photonics West will be held in San Francisco from 2010.

This morning the editorial team reporting from Photonics West learned from Eugene Arthurs, SPIE's executive director, that the event will be held in San Francisco's Moscone Center in 2010. The reason is clear: the San Jose Convention Center is no longer able to cater for the growing number of exhibitors and delegates who visit the show every year.

Indeed, for the first time this year the show organizers could not accommodate all the exhibitors in the Main Hall and the South Hall, itself a semi-permanent extension to the main convention center. An extra tent has had to be added onto one end of the South Hall, which is reported to leak when it rains.