LMIRIS Developing High Resolution Acoustical Imaging System
WASHINGTON---A team from Lockheed Martin Infrared Imaging Systems (LMIRIS), Lexington, Mass., is designing and developing a high-resolution acoustical imaging system. SonoCam(TM) will be a compact, battery-operated, hand-held unit with an acoustical lens that can provide real time three-dimensional images. The camera has broad applications in military, medical and other commercial markets.
Tim White, Technical Program Manager for the Sonoelectronics Program at LMIRIS said, "Features as small as a dime can be imaged from a distance of about four meters. With conventional sonar, such a feature would not be visible at all. This unique ability to image details will enable users to distinguish mines from mine-like objects even in the murkiest waters without touching them.''
Our acoustical imaging technology can also improve the image quality of most currently fielded medical ultrasound systems. An advanced transducer could be produced to optimize the performance of existing systems at a fraction of the cost of a new system,'' White added. Recent developments in infrared imaging technology at LMIRIS, coupled with improvements in microelectronics, permitted the team to adapt IR imaging techniques to ultrasound in order to develop the innovative sound imaging system.
White, in a presentation at Lockheed Martin's Technology Symposium in Washington, D.C., said the SonoCam(TM) operates much like other imaging cameras -- using reflected energy from an object or area to create pictures -- but SonoCam(TM) uses sound waves as the energy source. The high frequency sound waves are projected either from an imaging array or a separate source attached to the camera like a flash attachment. Reflected sound energy is collected by an acoustical lens on a focal plane array of ultrasonic transducers. Processed data produce the image.
SonoCam(TM) differs from traditional sonar systems in two significant ways: use of an acoustical lens, which forms images from incoming sound energy; and its two-dimensional array which converts the sound image into an electronic form for display.
Because of its high-resolution video picture, SonoCam(TM) will enable the U.S. Navy to distinguish between a mine and a mine-like object even in the worst underwater visibility conditions. Unmanned underwater vehicles equipped with SonoCam(TM) might perform this mission and send images back to a remote monitor without sending a diver into harm's way.
Acoustical imaging at LMIRIS began in 1993 under an internally funded program to adapt modern infrared imaging technology to acoustic imaging. The project successfully demonstrated the world's first acoustical image using an array of more than 2500 elements. In 1994, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army saw the potential to improve the survival rate of soldiers wounded on the battlefield and initiated a $3 million Battlefield Ultrasonic Diagnostic Imager (BUDI) Program. In 1996, the company was funded by the Naval Surface Warfare Center to apply acoustic technology for U.S. Navy underwater applications.
Lockheed Martin Infrared Imaging Systems has a long and successful heritage as an advanced infrared systems and components supplier to the U.S. Government, the commercial marketplace and to international clients. An operating unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation, the Company is a major producer of state-of-the-art electro-optical space sensors, advanced missile seekers, threat-warning systems, infrared line scanners and uncooled microbolometer-based sensors.
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LMIRIS Developing High Resolution Acoustical Imaging System
