Share on Twitter
Share on Facebook
Share on LinkedInSPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing (DCS), held in Orlando in mid-April with around 200 exhibitors and full days of technical conferences and training, offered some interesting insight into vision applications and emerging technologies.
Most evident, the “defense” portion of DCS was a top priority. Surveillance, tracking, and early awareness systems were common across the show floor, ranging from installed fixed infrastructure and smaller formfactor and highly portable thermal and IR systems to autonomous land and air vehicles. Commercial sensing was not excluded, with some unique airborne systems incorporating advanced sensors for agricultural and industrial monitoring.
“Retrofit” was also a popular topic around defense systems, particularly in conversations in the Pleora booth. There is a large installed base of application-critical legacy imaging devices, especially in land-based vehicles, that must be maintained and integrated alongside newer imaging solutions. In one example, a designer is integrating a MIPI-based solution for driver enhancement with a mix of installed GigE Vision and Camera Link imaging devices. For the end-user, in this case a driver, seamless ease-of-use between these installed and new devices is critical.
For new technologies, it was interesting to learn more about event-based sensors from device designers as well as vendors. Event-based sensors detect and transmit only changes in a scene, such as motion or brightness variations, where a traditional camera transmits full images. Pleora is currently working with vendors to integrate event-based solutions into a GigE Vision networked environment for security and surveillance applications. Based on attendance at the technology session on event-based sensors, designers are keen to learn more about the application opportunity.
Next year’s event is being rebranded as “SPIE Defense + Security”, which very much reflects the focus of this year’s exhibitors and attendees.
