Compact high performance 360 degree foveated imaging systems

There is a strong need for improved panoramic imaging and situational awareness for many military and commercial systems. Security and border patrol systems demand greater panoramic viewing with the ability to zoom into potential threats for identification. Most importantly, improved situational awareness will help to protect our soldiers especially in complex battlefields such as urban environments. Although 360 degree situation awareness systems exist today, they have unacceptable size, weight and cost and also limited performance. This proposal is aimed at addressing these weaknesses through an innovative new system architecture that promises to deliver a high performance, compact system with constant 360 degree monitoring and zoom capability for threat identification.