Hood River, OR, June 06, 2014 -- For a nice change, instead of Hood Tech Vision’s imagers being under fire in Afghanistan or Iraq, they are over the fire to monitor hot spots on the Alaskan Kenai Peninsula.

From: Hood Tech Corp Vision, Inc., Hood River, Oregon
Date: June 5, 2014
Subject: This Time Hood Tech Vision’s UAV Imagers Over, Not Under, Fire
Contact: Dr. Andy von Flotow, Hood Tech Corp Vision, Inc., 541-387-2288, [email protected]

In a fine turnabout, the same Hood Tech Vision UAV imagers that helped protect US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are monitoring hot spots in a troubling blaze on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska (http://www.adn.com/2014/05/31/3496071/drone-helps-find-hotspots-map.html?sp=/99/188/). The initial flight allowed Hood Tech Vision’s onboard imaging system to identify 15 hotspots in about six hours of flying time, having been launched in the early morning hours and landing about 8 AM. The hot spots within “the 193,000-acre blaze” will help “officials deciding how to attack” the fire. "It really got some of the key people understanding that we can really help," said Ro Bailey, deputy director of the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration. "It's not a toy or something like that. It's actually something that can improve their ability to do a job." The last time Hood Tech Vision’s infrared and visual imagers helped with a fire was five years ago near the town of Central, in Alaska’s interior.

Regulatory hurdles continue to raise temperatures along with the fires. The article continues, “Last Monday, the team got the go-ahead, Bailey said, but it took a few days to sort out various permissions and agreements and issues with restricted airspace. Once a set of temporary agreements were locked in, the aircraft catapulted into the sky at 2 a.m. Friday for a mission that lasted about six hours.”

A follow-up article (http://guardianlv.com/2014/06/alaska-fire-still-raging-now-monitored-by-drone-aircraft/) shows the UAV ready to fly with Hood Tech Vision imagers continuing to monitor the fire.

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 Vision matches embedded stabilization technology with electro-optical lenses that zoom up to 200 times. This results in a field of view of 0.3 degrees, in a package that weighs from less than one to six kg.

Hood Tech Vision imagers consume as little as one-fifth the power common for such systems, increasing the power budget to other sensors for Multi-INT missions. Designed for manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), boats, land vehicles, and towed and stationary mounts, the reliability and utility of Hood Tech’s daylight and thermal imaging products has been demonstrated during 800,000 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
Hood Tech
1750 Country Club Rd.
Hood River, OR 97031
541-387-2288
[email protected]
http://www.hoodtech.com