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The use of staring infrared imaging systems provides significant advantages for military missions such as single sensor
day/night persistent tactical surveillance of all moving vehicles in a large urban battlefield. Monitoring of very wide
instantaneous field-of-regard with the capability to allocate parts or all of the video-channel bandwidth for high-resolution
imaging of a narrow field of view allows identifying and tracking targets from long standoff distances. This
capability has been successfully demonstrated in the Agile, Detecting and Discriminating, Infrared Electro-Optical
System (ADDIOS) developed by Applied Science Innovations, Inc. in collaboration with the Air Force Research
Laboratory (AFRL). The system features electronically switchable resolution achieved with digital processing gain,
which replaced optical or opto-mechanical gain typical of conventional cameras. The output of the system has an order
of magnitude higher resolution compared to pixel-limited resolution of the imaging sensor alone. This capability,
demonstrated in the working ADDIOS prototype, is universally applicable for boosting resolution of "pixel-hungry"
imagers where available pixel counts fall short of desired, e.g., due to technology limitations of high costs. The
ADDIOS modular design makes the flexible-resolution imaging core equally applicable to cameras with conventional
lenses, coded aperture systems, and potentially other technologies such as holography and optical metrology. The
system features millisecond switching speed and low power consumption, combined with reasonable cost, small mass,
and compact form factor applicable to retrofitting existing imaging systems. With the experimental prototype already
demonstrated in the visible and near-infrared, the spectral range can be expanded into mid-wave and potentially long-wave
infrared ranges. The paper summarizes the results of the ADDIOS technology development and addresses their
application to DARPA's Large Area Coverage Optical Search-while-Track and Engage (LACOSTE) program, including
coded aperture imaging.
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