Where It Stands

CSC’s image processing products have applications in border security and surveillance, biometric identification, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ultra-lightweight micro-unmanned aerial vehicles (μUAVs), surface-to-air threat warning for aircraft, mobile military units, medical imaging (CAT and MRI), and possibly nondestructive evaluation (NDE).

Other areas of application are in navigation and guidance markets, as well as automatic inspection and machine vision. CSC sensors could be used on a commercial jetliner, for example, to provide advance warning of a surface-to-air missile attack, an issue that arose in the years following September 11. To combat such a threat, small imaging sensors, placed on the fuselage of a jet and coupled with relevant software, could give warning of an incoming object in time for a pilot to take evasive action. For machine vision/automatic inspection applications in quality control of manufactured goods, the sensors could be used to detect signs of product tampering or contamination.

An application in border security is where infrared cameras are already used to detect movements in the vast areas that constitute much of the U.S. border with Mexico. CSC’s image processing chip, when outfitted with infrared capabilities, could offer better performance to the Border Patrol.

For medical applications, CSC is currently engaged in a study with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California (UC) at San Francisco Medical School to determine the efficacy of its sensors in the iterative reconstruction of CAT scan and MRI images. In the former case, shorter image processing time can mean faster scans and a lower radiation dose, and in the latter, less time in the noisy and confining MRI apparatus.

More Information

For more information on Computational Sciences Corp.’s 3D stacked integrated circuit technology, visit http://info.hotims.com/ 10970-515.