The design and preliminary performance characteristics of the projection optical subsystem (POS) of US Army STIRCOM's dynamic infrared scene projector (DIRSP) are presented in this paper. The DIRSP POS, made by Diversified Optical Products of Salem, NH and Mission Research Corporation, serves three purposes. The first is to combine the broadband images of three 544 X 672 pixel resistive emitter arrays using wedge-shaped mirrors to make a 1632 X 672 pixel mosaic image with minimal seams and aberrations. The second is to fold in long-wave infrared (LWIR) light from a blackbody for projecting backgrounds from 240 to 337 K. The third purpose is to collimate the LWIR light from the mosaic image and blackbody with a 5:1 motorized zoom lens. Samples of the mosaic image as seen through the blackbody relay are presented along with the designed characteristics of the zoom lens.

Date Published: 19 July 1999
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 3697, Technologies for Synthetic Environments: Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing IV, (19 July 1999); doi: 10.1117/12.352922

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3697:
Technologies for Synthetic Environments: Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing IV
Robert Lee Murrer Jr., Editor(s)