AeroSense was not camera shy

Camera technology, from digital to infrared (IR), shrank in size for this year's AeroSense conference, held April 25-27 in Orlando, FL. Although it was billed as the 14th Annual International Symposium on Aerospace/Defense Sensing, Simulation, and Controls by sponsor SPIE (Bellingham, WA), the society's associate executive director Marshall Weathersby noted that the conference also promoted diverse down-to-earth applications ranging from industrial inspection and preventive maintenance to fire fighting and pollution monitoring. Although IR technology seemed to dominate the exhibit floor, it didn't necessarily dominate the conference sessions at Aerosense. One well-attended technical session cluster was on display technology, with heavy aerospace and defense industry attendance. Infrared focal-plane-array technology was another hot spot. On the IR side, one technical paper with a slightly different flavor was by researchers from Kochi University in Japan. According to Hideaki Matsueda of the university's department of information science, he and colleagues have been applying optoelectronics technology to detect the intensity modulation and spectra (near-UV to near- IR) emitted from people that claim healing ability in the art of qi and other Japanese holistic practices. Overall, attendance at the conference and on the exhibit floor seemed healthy, and. Weathersby estimates that attendance at least matched last year's levels at around 3500.—Paula Noaker Powell