Highlighted/cooled thermal camera (via FLIR Systems)
From matches to mosquito repellant, the U.S. Army has for a long time dictated engineers to improve and innovate in the name of their soldiers and their country. Now, DARPA is calling on engineers again to radically redesign the thermal vision camera in order to fit inside portable devices.
DARPA has stated clear specifications for what they have in mind for a Low Cost Thermal Imager Manufacturing (LCTI-M) program. Wafer scale optics that weigh less than 25 grams are cheap to mass manufacture and have a total cost of less than $500 per camera (for roughly 1.5 million soldiers in the army this would end up costing taxpayers around 750 million dollars).
The performance of the camera will be crucial. The military wants the cameras to develop a singularly clear image of “living forms” that could represent a hidden threat to the soldier in any weather condition. This means they want to detect whether a person is holding a rifle or RPG. They wont be able to detect the person's uniform or intent, but DARPA will surely find a solution for that too.
DARPA has called on the entire engineering community to come up with some form cheap portable thermal camera. Firms are being urged to submit request for proposals for an LCTI-M program to DARPA by March 9. DARPA is already paying $13.4 million dollars over three years to Raytheon Vision Systems.
DARPA has enough confidence in engineers to express that the use for thermal cameras could also be expanded upon commercially. Engineers and businessmen seem to have a way of figuring these things out. They certainly seem to always be more effective than politicians.
Eavesdropper
