Project Files
|
Thermal Imaging Camera
|
Printer Friendly Version ,
requires Acrobat
Reader
Redshift Systems had developed a radical new technology
that greatly reduced the cost of manufacturing Thermal
Imaging Cameras (TICs). TICs are used in surveillance, and
by emergency response personnel to identify people and doors
in smoke filled buildings. Currently available products are
expensive and are not widely deployed. Redshift’s core
technology, the Thermal Light Valve ™ (TLV) translates
thermal radiation into light that can be directly imaged by
a standard CMOS camera chip. The TLV is based on an optical
active thin film originally developed and commercialized by
Aegis Semiconductor and current deployed in communication
networks. |
 |
System
Overview
Redshift Systems had created a first-generation
prototype using a commercially available
Analog Devices
Blackfin DSP evaluation board and a custom camera
board. Although they had an engineer capable of doing
the design, he was overloaded with other projects.
Bolton Engineering took the key features from the
prototype, made component selection trade-offs for
availability and size, added required I/O, and created a
highly integrated two-inch square module. In addition,
Bolton Engineering designed a separate camera board,
plus several small debug boards to aid in development.
Bolton Engineering also created custom driver software
that operated under the Analog Devices
VisualDSP++ Kernel to capture and integrate
successive camera frames, reformat the frames, and
output them in NTSC format to a video display.
Project Scope
Bolton Engineering wrote the specification, designed the
schematics, designed the 10-layer circuit board,
designed wrote diagnostic and driver software in ‘C’ to
operate under the VisualDSP++ Kernal, debugged the
system, and delivered ten working prototypes.
Pictures © Redshift Systems, used with Permission. |
| |
|
|
|
Consumer and Computer
