With over 2200 technical presentations and 420 company exhibits, the 2006 Defense and Security Symposium, held April 17-21 in Orlando, Fla., saw the largest non-classified technical program and exhibition of infrared (IR) imaging equipment, sensors, and optical components in the U.S.
Held at the Gaylord Palms Hotel and Convention Center and sponsored by the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), the event presented attendees with everything they could possibly need to know about the latest in electronics and electro-optics technologies.
Among the technologies that took center stage at the show were IR sensors, detectors, and systems; sensors and sensor networking; electronic imaging; optics; optoelectronic components; lasers; fiber lasers; cameras; CCD components; software; test equipment; and displays.
The technical program comprised 49 conferences, which primarily focused on sensors, imaging systems, signal and data processing, and networked systems—all for use in defense-related systems and services. Hot topics included discussions on sensors for command, control, communications, and intelligence; biometric technology for human identification; the role of optics and photonics in global homeland security; thermal sensing; IR technology and its applications; and passive millimeter-wave imaging. Other showstoppers included space-borne sensors; sensors for propulsion measurement; unmanned systems; unattended ground, sea, and air sensor technologies; multispectral imaging; and quantum communications and computations.
Tactical Imaging and Biometric Technologies
An invited paper presented by the University of Illinois discussed research on conductive biomolecules and their terahertz (THz) vibrational interactions. It proposed interesting implications for the design, development, and application of biosensors and bioelectronics. The research involves DNA strands bound to titanium-dioxide (TiO2) quantum dots in a liquid solution. TiO2 quantum dots have indirect band gaps. Therefore, they generate electron hole pairs that don’t recombine rapidly. The terahertz optical conductivity of these particular nanocrystalline structures elicits a charge transfer in the DNA that could theoretically be harnessed to make amperometric biosensors based on conducting nanotubes. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory presented an overview of methods for using neutron radiation detection techniques for the examination of shipping containers. Neutron radiation interacts with materials through a number of methods. Neutrons can be scattered back and forth, generating gamma rays. By detecting the time of flight and angular distribution of these resultant particles, items inside a shipping container can be located in space and then identified through energy-spectrum measurements of the gamma ray particles.