Video rate visible to LWIR hyperspectral image generation and exploitation

Hyperspectral imaging is the latest advent in imagin technology, providing the potential to extract information about the objects in a scene that is unavailable to panchromatic imagers. This increased utility, however, comes at the cost of tremendously increased data. The ultimate utility of hyperspectral imagery is in the information that can be gleaned from the spectral dimensions, rather than in the hyperspectral imagery itself. To have the broadest range of applications, extraction of this information must occur in real-time. Attempting to produce and exploit compete cubes of hyperspectral imagery at video rates, however, presents unique problems for both the imager and the processor, since data rates are scaled by the number of spectral planes in the cube. MIDIS allows both real-time collection and processing of hyperspectral imagery over the range of 0.4 micrometers to 12 micrometers .