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Infrared detection - ONERA and Sofradir make innovations

ONERA, and Sofradir - a company specialising in infra-red detectors for military applications - unveiled their new 360° view infra-red detector in Orlando (USA).

Developed on the basis of the particularly compact cooled infra-red detection system- developed by ONERA and Sofradir (Scorpio), this detector constitutes a further innovation by including panoramic Fish Eye optics, which afford it a 360° view.

The IR detector equipped with its Fish Eye and an example of a 360° image obtained by the system.

Through the integration of this lens, the detector independently produces a panoramic image without it being necessary to add additional components. As a result, it would thus reduce the quantity of optical and electronic components used in current infra-red imaging systems by a third. For camera manufacturers, this means that future infra-red systems could be twice as small.

Due to its compactness and very wide field of view, the new detector, which was officially presented at the "SPIE Defence, Security & Sensing" Conference in Orlando last April could be very well suited for surveillance and security applications, as well as for drone or robot vision systems.