Achieving autonomy and SWaP reduction in real-time molecular chemical imaging platforms and applications

Abstract

Explosive, chemical and narcotic materials, when in the wrong hands, pose an immediate threat to public health and safety. As the nature of these threats become more pervasive and lethal to innocent bystanders and unsuspecting military and law enforcement authorities, there is a growing demand for rapid and effective detection of materials in real-time with a high degree of autonomy and portability at safe distances. In an effort to address this need, ChemImage has been developing novel, adaptable, handheld, short-wave infrared (SWIR) molecular chemical imaging systems for real-time analysis of complex environments, including for detection of hazardous materials (e.g., explosives, chemical warfare agents, drugs of abuse). At the heart of this sensor is the Conformal Filter (CF), which is a liquid crystal based tunable filter (LCTF) that transmits multi-band waveforms that mimic the functionality of a discriminant vector for classification of target threats amongst background clutter. Real-time detection (≥10 detection fps) is achieved by operating two CFs in tandem within a dual polarization (DP) system, allowing for simultaneous acquisition of the compressed hyperspectral imaging data. This paper will focus on the development, characterization and testing results of a prototype handheld DP-CF sensor. Details of the autonomous, low size, weight and power (SWaP) sensor and applications of the technology to address realworld detection challenges including High Throughput Mail Screening (HTMS) and Chemical Warfare Agent (CWA) surveying and mapping will be discussed.