Optical Alchemy announces successful flight tests of gimbal system

3rd November 2010 - 16:00 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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Optical Alchemy, in a joint effort with their integration partner CenTauri Solutions, recently demonstrated successful operation of their High Definition, Geo-Referenced, 6.4 Inch, 14 pound gimbal for a government customer.

Despite the harsh vibration conditions of an unmanned VTOL platform, the gimbal system was able to compensate for the vibration and deliver outstanding quality high definition transport streams (video + metadata). Jay Tome, Vice President of Customer Support and Integration at Optical Alchemy, said "The biggest challenge we faced was image stability. On a high vibration platform it's very difficult to remove all the jitter, especially with high definition video. When we finished the stabilization and saw those outstanding high definition video streams from the bird in flight...well it was simply incredible." Government and industry observers were also impressed.

High Definition video is a significant improvement over standard-definition video as it provides wide field of view and thus greatly improved situational awareness. Also, the High Definition camera improves image quality even at high zoom factor allowing for easier and more accurate target detection and identification. In addition to outstanding video quality, the Optical Alchemy Team demonstrated high-accuracy geo-referencing performance, and the ability to dwell on target for extended periods of time. Optical Alchemy has developed this technology to support real-time ISR and anti-IED operations for forward deployed soldiers.

Source: Optical Alchemy

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