Smartphone function integration A team at the Finnish National Technical Research Center was reported to have transplanted a new type of optical sensor to the lens of an Apple mobile phone at the end of last year to create the world’s first hyperspectral mobile device.
In recent years, the team has developed a variety of different types of novel hyperspectral imaging devices, ranging from skin cancer detection to drone environmental monitoring, and light cameras on cube satellites. These imaging devices are all based on Fabry-Perot interferometer tunable optical filters.
Food quality inspection According to the research team leader Anna Rissanen, they recently developed a new type of Fabry-Perot interferometer based on MEMS. The interferometer can be manufactured on a large scale and is inexpensive. Smart phone.
Says: "We want to prove that using the MEMS Fabry-Perot interferometer technology can transform an ordinary iPhone into a hyperspectral imaging device."
Based on its experience with traditional hyperspectral imaging devices, the team believes that this new technology will be applied in many areas with different wavelength ranges. Now they have conducted research on food quality testing and human health monitoring.
Said: "The focus of full development and application of this technology is whether these hyperspectral data can be applied to program algorithms. This is the key to understanding the surrounding things with our new method."
According to the confidentiality agreement, she could not disclose details of this upcoming commercial MEMS hyperspectral imager, but Rissanen said that they are planning to engage with different types of partner companies, supply chains, and end-users to find more commercialization. way.
In recent years, the Finnish National Technical Research Center has established a solid cooperative relationship with many famous and start-up companies. This includes Senop Oy (formerly Rikola) and Revenio. Senop Oy assists the National Technology Research Center in the commercialization of UAV applications for hyperspectral imagers. Revenio is conducting commercial development of hyperspectral cameras for skin cancer detection.
Spacelab is also actively studying the application of hyperspectral imagers to cubic satellites.
Said: "As a research institute, the Finnish National Technical Research Center will not sell products. Our goal is to cooperate with the company and commit ourselves to the commercial development of this new imager. The market and application are mainly decided by these partners."
Another application for pesticide testing is the HawkSpex application developed by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. It uses a smartphone with integrated hyperspectral imaging for food safety monitoring and can be used to check for drug residues on apple surfaces.
The initial application of the laboratory version has been successfully tested at the Fraunhofer Institute and commercial applications will be available later this year.
In addition, Unispectral, an Israeli start-up company, is also developing new hyperspectral digital imaging equipment. The company was founded in March 2016 by Ariel Raz and David Mendlovic and was born out of a hyperspectral research project at Tel Aviv University.
In addition to its use on smartphones, the company is also convinced that this new technology can be used in a large number of applications in the booming machine vision field. Amir Lehr, chief commercial officer of Unispectral, explained: “Most modern images are stored, shared and presented. The goal of this imaging technology is to mimic human eyes. In the future, we believe that the vast majority of captured images It will be used to calculate the decision analysis."
Most modern cameras can imitate the human eye and can receive light at wavelengths between 400 and 670 nanometers, and are divided into red, green and blue pixels according to the Bell template image. The unique CMOS sensor can receive near-infrared light with wavelengths up to about 1000 nm.
According to Lehr's introduction, this sensor has the flexibility in receiving light wavelengths, and can both receive visible light and invisible light, which is conducive to enhancing its imaging capabilities under low light conditions.
Adjustable wavelength This flexibility benefits from an adjustable wavelength filter, which is a microelectromechanical device that can be used as a Fabry-Perot interferometer. This means that the Unispectral team can remove the two parallel optical surfaces and also achieve accurate selection of transmitted light frequencies.
Lehr said: "The design of the filter and the surface coating determine the transmission curve of the filter. This filter is integrated into the camera lens, replacing or adding to the Bell red, green and blue image templates."
According to the requirements of the use environment, the camera and filter are controlled by a driver and corresponding algorithm. The conventional CMOS sensor combined with this filter can realize hyperspectral imaging in the range of 400nm-1000nm. He pointed out: "In combination with different light sensors, imaging in different wavelength ranges will be obtained."
This technology has received attention. Just a year ago, Unisepctral completed the first round of financing of $7.5 million led by the Israeli Venture Capital Fund (JVP), including Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Samsung Catalytics Fund, and Tel Aviv University's Technology Innovation Dynamics Fund. Unispectral has identified some potential commercial applications.
With the popularity of this hyperspectral sensing technology described by Lehr, this will bring benefits to the pharmaceutical, precision agriculture and smart food industries.
Lehr said: "We believe that mature applications related to food will be early adopters of this technology, whether in the B2B market or the B2C market."
Although there are no details on the technical details at this stage, he said that the company is currently engaged with some of the world's leading companies and is committed to bringing this new technology to market.
He said: "We are currently targeting multiple platforms and we plan to start deploying products in 2018 before expanding."
(Title: Latest Progress in Hyperspectral Imaging and Sensors)