Blended Vision FLIR

For people who do a lot of IFR and night flying, Blended Vision has developed and test flown a FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared ?night vision?) camera system. It will be initially made available to the experimental aircraft community. The first prototype was recently installed and flown on a Velocity XL/RG. Prototypes are currently being created for other aircraft, including various models in the RV lineup.

Demonstration FLIR video from flight testing may be viewed at the Blended Vision website:

http://www.BlendedVisionLLLC.com/flight_video

The primary purpose of the FLIR is to help the pilot avoid things he needs to avoid (like cell phone and communications towers), and to find things he needs to find (like the runway) ? particularly at night and in poor visibility conditions. A FLIR camera turns ?night into day? for the pilot and greatly enhances situational awareness, especially at night.

The Blended Vision FLIR camera technology benefits from many years of development work for military and other high end aerospace applications. However, the uncooled Blended Vision FLIR is priced below $9000 and special show prices will be in effect at this year?s Oshkosh airshow. The Blended Vision FLIR is interfaced and operates with GRT ?HX? EFIS displays running the current software release by simply selecting the ?Video? mode on the HX PFD cockpit display. FLIR video may also be simultaneously recorded to laptop (even netbook) computers during flight for subsequent re-play on the ground (or in the air).

Bob Jackson
[email protected]

Bob,

First, welcome to the forum. Second, your URL is wrong, unless you are creating an new corporate entity called "Triple-L C" . Finally, the video looks good. The only thing I have to compare against is the stuff I've seen from Forward Vision:

http://www.forward-vision.net/

From their sample video, it seems they have a lot more contrast in the image, so it shows things better. Why is that?

--Bill

Bill,

The difference in contrast is called smart marketing. Make your demo video flights out West in the winter with 5% humidity, not in Orlando in the summer with 95% humidity. We?re a brand new startup and our test flights to date have been flown here in Orlando at the height of our rainy season. We?ll be flying soon throughout the country and will be gathering a complete set of video that?s representative of the full spectrum of weather and environmental conditions.

FLIRs operate at longer wavelengths than the eye and can generally penetrate smoke, clouds, humidity and poor weather conditions better than the eye, but not at wavelengths long enough to fully penetrate the clouds like radar. A major FLIR advantage is its ability to operate equally well in both day and night conditions, and that it creates real time video image format information that the brain can easily and directly assimilate and correspond to what is seen (or should be seen) out of the window.

Monitoring real time FLIR video in the cockpit in effect provides the pilot with a secondary attitude gyro -- one capable of also displaying actual (not synthetic vision) 'out the window' object and terrain features. It takes very little time to become accustomed to the ?inverted polarity? appearance of thermal imagery (where hot corresponds to hot, not bright objects). Displaying hot objects as white is also a big advantage because both categories of things pilots want to see and find, or to avoid are generally hotter than their surrounds.

Here?s the link again:

http://www.BlendedVisionLLC.com/flight_video

Hope this answers your questions.

Bob

Not much detail on the website. Specs? You mentioned the GRT; will it interface with other EFISs? Or have it's own LCD? Weight? Footprint? Power? How does it perform if mounted behind a spinning prop or will tractor configurations have to put a bump on the leading edge of the wing?

Hummmm, I know it will interface with the electronics I have in my bird, the question is """ What is the $$$""".......Make me a deal I can't refuse and I will purchase one!!!!

I currently have 4 cameras with a quad splitter and DVR......Oh yea and a GRT HX (video is Great) , now if I could only get a tv adapter to watch soaps....

$'s? and what's the music in the video?

Cost less than $9000 -- more details are in original post

Music is Caravan by Dave Gruisin

What is resolution?