RESEARCH ON IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEMS

THIS PROJECT WILL FOCUS ON THE DESIGN AND HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT OF A SPECTRO-IMAGER THAT WILL BE DEVELOPED AND TESTED UNDER PHASE II. PROCESSING OF MULTISPECTRAL IMAGE INFORMATION WILL BE PERFORMED IN A TWO-DIMENSIONAL PARALLEL ASYNCHRONOUS MODE BY THE SPECTRO-IMAGER. TO ACQUIRE AND PROCESS THE SPECTRAL INFORMATION FLOWING TO EACH PIXEL IN PARALLEL, A NEW TECHNOLOGICAL STRATAGEM WILL BE REQUIRED;THE APPROACH WILL USE RATHER SIMPLE NEURON-LIKE TRANSIENT SENSING CIRCUITS COUPLED TO EACH PIXEL. THESE CIRCUITS WILL BE OPTIMIZED TO RESPOND AT THE FREQUENCY OF A CHOPPER IN THE OPTICAL PORTION OF THE SYSTEM. A COMPUTER-CONTROLLED, CIRCULAR, VARIABLE FILTER WILL ALSO BE LOCATED IN THE OPTICAL PORTION OF THE SYSTEM, TO PERMIT THE ACQUISITION OF SPECTRAL INFORMATION FROM MULTISPECTRAL, FOCAL PLANE SENSORS. THE SPECTRAL RESOLUTION WILL BE SUFFICIENT FOR GEOCHEMICAL IMAGING, PLANETARY EXPLORATION, AND OTHER IMAGING APPLICATIONS. SUCH APPLICATIONS WILL BE EXPLORED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE DEVELOPMENT WORK. THIS PROJECT WILL FOCUS ON THE DESIGN AND HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT OF A SPECTRO-IMAGER THAT WILL BE DEVELOPED AND TESTED UNDER PHASE II. PROCESSING OF MULTISPECTRAL IMAGE INFORMATION WILL BE PERFORMED IN A TWO-DIMENSIONAL PARALLEL ASYNCHRONOUS MODE BY THE SPECTRO-IMAGER. TO ACQUIRE AND PROCESS THE SPECTRAL INFORMATION FLOWING TO EACH PIXEL IN PARALLEL, A NEW TECHNOLOGICAL STRATAGEM WILL BE REQUIRED;THE APPROACH WILL USE RATHER SIMPLE NEURON-LIKE TRANSIENT SENSING CIRCUITS COUPLED TO EACH PIXEL. THESE CIRCUITS WILL BE OPTIMIZED TO RESPOND AT THE FREQUENCY OF A CHOPPER IN THE OPTICAL PORTION OF THE SYSTEM. A COMPUTER-CONTROLLED, CIRCULAR, VARIABLE FILTER WILL ALSO BE LOCATED IN THE OPTICAL PORTION OF THE SYSTEM, TO PERMIT THE ACQUISITION OF SPECTRAL INFORMATION FROM MULTISPECTRAL, FOCAL PLANE SENSORS. THE SPECTRAL RESOLUTION WILL BE SUFFICIENT FOR GEOCHEMICAL IMAGING, PLANETARY EXPLORATION, AND OTHER IMAGING APPLICATIONS. SUCH APPLICATIONS WILL BE EXPLORED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE DEVELOPMENT WORK.