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Portable Hyperspectral Imaging Broadens Sensing Horizons
Industrial Productivity
Originating Technology/NASA Contribution
All objects reflect a certain amount of energy, even if it
is just the electromagnetic energy created by the movement
of electrically charged molecules. Measurements of these
reflected energies, called spectra, can be used to create
images of observed items and can thus serve to identify objects
and substances. To create a spectral image, the intensity
of the energy an object is reflecting is measured at different
wavelengths, and then these measurements are assigned colors.
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Lextel
Intelligence Systems LLC made advances in the size,
usability, and cost of the NASA-developed portable
hyperspectral imaging instruments. The company now
offers a suite of turnkey hyperspectral imaging systems
based on the original
NASA groundwork. |
These images can be simple, as they often are with broadband
or multispectral imaging, in which an image may consist of
very few measurements. An example of this would be the type
of pictures created by infrared or “night vision” equipment.
This broadband multispectral imaging can be very helpful
in showing differences in energy being radiated and is often
employed by NASA satellites to monitor temperature and climate
changes.
Images that are created with hundreds to thousands of spectra,
hyperspectral images, allow for more subtle features to be
shown, including the distinction between natural and man-made
objects. Hyperspectral imaging is ideal for advanced laboratory
uses, biomedical imaging, forensics, counter-terrorism, skin
health, food safety, and Earth imaging.
Engineers at NASA’s Stennis Space Center work with the Institute
for Technology Development (ITD), a nonprofit research company
located onsite at Stennis, to develop new hyperspectral imaging
technologies. ITD has been at the forefront of imaging technologies
since it opened nearly 20 years ago, revolutionizing the
fields of high-resolution imaging and measurement technology,
with a focus on transferring this newfound technology to
industry. Recent work led to reduced sensor sizes, elimination
of the need for either the sensor or target to be in motion
in order to obtain images, and the development of a portable
hyperspectral imaging device applicable for a wide variety
of uses.
Partnership
The portable device created by the NASA-ITD partnership was
licensed, and in 2003, a new spinoff company, Photon Industries
Inc., was formed. In 2005, ITD and its start-up brought the
technology and business plan to the World Technologies Venture
Capital Exposition, held that year in Texas, where it was
discovered by Lextel
Intelligence Systems LLC, of Jackson,
Mississippi. In November 2005, Lextel purchased the company
and its cutting-edge NASA technology.
The acquisition was a great boon for the technology, as it
now had access to worldwide marketing, and later that year,
it was inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame, created
by the Space Foundation, in cooperation with NASA, to increase
public awareness of the benefits that result from space exploration
programs and to encourage further innovation.
Product Outcome
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Microscope
slide examined using a hyperspectral imaging instrument. |
Since the acquisition, in addition to winning awards, Lextel
has also added new features to and expanded the applicability
of the hyperspectral imaging systems. It has made advances
in the size, usability, and cost of the instruments. The
company now offers a suite of turnkey hyperspectral imaging
systems based on the original NASA groundwork. It currently
has four lines of hyperspectral imaging products: the EagleEye
VNIR 100E, the EagleEye SWIR 100E, the EagleEye SWIR 200E,
and the EagleEye UV 100E.
The EagleEye VNIR 100E spans the spectrum from the visible
to infrared, measuring the reflected energy of the target
at hundreds of narrow wavelengths. It incorporates a patented
line-scanning technique that eliminates the need for relative
movement between the target and the sensor, which eliminates
the need for liquid crystal tunable filters, which suffer
from relatively low throughput. The EagleEye uses a prism-grating
prism to separate incoming light into component wavelengths,
a method that loses less energy and is, therefore, especially
useful in situations where high signal-to-noise ratios are
important. Each image created by the VNIR 100E contains a
complete reflectance spectrum from 400 to 1,000 nanometers
for every picture element in the image.
The next product in Lextel’s suite of hyperspectral imaging
instruments is the EagleEye SWIR 100E. Each image created
by this device contains a complete reflectance spectrum from
900 to 1,700 nanometers for every picture element in the
image.
The third product in the suite is the EagleEye SWIR 200E.
Each image created by this device contains a complete reflectance
spectrum from 1,000 to 2,500 nanometers for every picture
element in the image.
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Color
image of leg wound next to hyperspectral oxygenation
map of the wound |
Lextel’s fourth product is the EagleEye UV 100E, an instrument
that will span the spectrum from ultraviolet to thermal infrared.
With this instrument, the images contain a complete reflectance
spectrum from 200 to 400 nanometers for every picture element
in the image.
Lextel has distributors for these hyperspectral imaging instruments
in the United States, Canada, Europe, China, Japan, and Israel.
They are currently used worldwide for a wide variety of applications
including medical, military, forensics, and food safety,
to name just a few.
In March 2006, Lextel entered into an agreement with ITD
and NASA to continue to improve upon the already advanced
sensing systems. The three entities are currently working
on methods for incorporating hyperspectral fluorescence into
the instruments.
In November 2006, Lextel also entered into an agreement with
Headwall Photonics Inc., of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, to
build a product line based on the convex grating reflective
spectrograph design. This
will allow the worldwide customer base to have a choice
between prism-grating prism systems or reflective-based systems.
There will also be work between the two
groups to incorporate their microspectrographs into Lextel’s
next generation system, The Micro Intelligent Imaging System.
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