Hood River, OR, November 06, 2013 -- Hood Tech Vision imagers provided the photographic information of Captain Richard Phillip’s lifeboat in the events portrayed by the recently released movie, “Captain Phillips”.

From: Hood Tech Corp Vision, Inc., Hood River, Oregon
Date: November 5, 2013
Subject: Hood Tech Vision Plays a Supporting “Role” in New Movie “Captain Phillips”
Contact: Dr. Andy von Flotow, Hood Tech Corp Vision, Inc., 541-387-2288, [email protected]

Movie-goers are familiar with the Navy SEALs; they've appeared in dozen of films, including the recently released "Captain Phillips", starring Tom Hanks. However, many people got their first look at a relatively new and very effective piece of military technology in "Captain Phillips", when the Navy orders the launch of Hood Tech Vision imagers carried aboard a small UAV. Hood Tech imagers provided the information needed to precisely locate the lifeboat, Phillips and his captors.

The Navy uses Hood Tech imagers on UAVs as one of their tools to take pictures to combat piracy. US Navy About a decade ago, the US Navy began using UAVs and Hood Tech Vision imagers for surveillance, providing a unique perspective on enemy activities. Fortunately, the destroyer USS Bainbridge had such equipment on board, and was able to use it to rescue Captain Phillips.

While larger “drones” employ their cameras for target acquisition, among other uses, and have become the focus of public attention, small UAVs and their imagers have not received the same level of scrutiny.Nor do the imaging systems on board the smaller UAVs get the level of publicity given to the powerful systems on high-flying drones. But the smaller UAVs need not fly nearly so high as the larger drones to be invisible and quiet enough to accomplish major portions of the practical work of day-to-day reconnaissance and surveillance.

The successful assault on the pirates by members of the SEAL team would have been much more difficult without the precise information provided to them by Hood Tech Vision imagers and the small UAV that carried them. Their presence led to a successful conclusion to the hijacking, when Navy SEALs were able to rescue Captain Phillips from the pirates. And based on that real-life action, Hood Tech Vision earned a minor role in the movie’s story.

Hood Tech Vision imagers, mounted on a UAV launched from the US Navy’s destroyer USS Bainbridge, monitored the life boat that carried Somali pirates and American cargo ship commander Richard Phillips in 2009. US Navy When Hood Tech began producing 800-gm video-camera turrets in 1998, it enabled an entirely new class of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Hood Technology Vision now designs and manufactures imaging and video processing systems at the highest level of the National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS): level 9. Hood Tech matches improved stabilization technology with electro-optical lenses that zoom up to 170 times. This results in a field of view of 0.3 degrees, in a package that weighs less than six kg.

Designed for manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), boats, land vehicles, and stationary mounts, the reliability and utility of Hood Tech’s daylight and thermal imaging products has been demonstrated over more than 700,000 hours of use in a variety of temperatures, humidity, dust, smoke, haze, and other environmental factors (http://www.hoodtechvision.com).

Dr. Andy von Flotow founded Hood Technology in Hood River, Oregon in 1992. Along with the design and manufacture of stabilized imaging systems, Hood Tech:

Develops, tests, and manufactures launch and retrieval systems for UAVs
Operates controlled launch and quiet wind tunnel test facilities
Monitors blade vibrations in industrial turbines and jet engines, including diagnostic methods that predict possible future failures.

The Hood Tech web site is: www.hoodtech.com

Contact:
Andy von Flotow
hoodtech.com
3100 Cascade
Hood River, OR 97031
541-387-2288
[email protected]
http://www.hoodtech.com