Electrical Engineering and Digital Night Vision

[kaleikaumaka]

Hello,
I am an Electrical Engineering student at the University of Georgia and will have to give a presentation on my dream job. I have to give specifics on what I would need to know. If I could get some input or maybe a job application that states the requirements. I know Electrical Engineering are not the only ones involved in the making of this equipment. Any input would be gratefully appreciated.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Hi and welcome to PF.
I will give you our stock answer to this sort of question and that is "What have you read and what have you found out so far?"
We all get tetchy at the idea of giving anyone help if we can't see they are helping themselves. Press the right buttons and you may be flooded with ideas from PF.

 

[Windadct]

Also that field seems pretty narrow - and IMO almost at a technical end from a mass market / need standpoint, camera sensors are sooo sensitive to low light these days it seems most of the obstacles have been overcome... but look up the companies producing these devices and review the spec sheets, are most of the specifications, especially the ones they brag about, electrical?

 

[donpacino]

There are 3 main parts of producing night vision systems. The optics, the power supply/control system, and the DSP.
The are usually electrical engineers and physicists. This involves developing the optical systems per system requirements and then giving the power supply/control system teams requirements for the optical systems. skills are E&M, analog design, digital design, and optics
The power supply/control system peeps are electrical engineers who design the electrical sources that power the lenses. Skills are analog and digital design and controls.
The DSP teams will work with the optical teams and power supply teams to do whatever they have to do for that particular project. skills are digital design.

Obviously there is a little more that goes into it, but those are the main groups.

 

[analogdesign]

Good description, Don, but you missed the sensor (unless you considered it part of the "optics", which is a bit weird).

 

[donpacino]

Good description, Don, but you missed the sensor (unless you considered it part of the "optics", which is a bit weird).

I did lump the sensor into the optics group. If you don't mind me asking why would that be considered weird?

 

[kaleikaumaka]

Thank you donpacino. This gives me some insight. I have a few questions though. DSP? Digital Signal Processing? E&M?

 

[analogdesign]

I did lump the sensor into the optics group. If you don't mind me asking why would that be considered weird?

No biggie, it's just that I design readout ICs for various image sensors for a living and I've never, ever seen the sensor lumped in with the optics. This is primarily because the skills required for optical design are so different that the skills required for sensor design. We speak different languages even. Our group is an end-to-end provider from camera mechanics to software, yet we buy our optics. There is nothing wrong with combining the optics with the sensor in principle, I've just never seen it in practice. I was honestly curious.

Thank you donpacino. This gives me some insight. I have a few questions though. DSP? Digital Signal Processing? E&M?

What is your question? You don't understand the acronyms? You're right DSP = Digital Signal Processing. E&M means Electromagnetic. This was to show the a night vision camera design would require some knowledge of wave propagation and the like.

 

[donpacino]

No biggie, it's just that I design readout ICs for various image sensors for a living and I've never, ever seen the sensor lumped in with the optics. This is primarily because the skills required for optical design are so different that the skills required for sensor design. We speak different languages even. Our group is an end-to-end provider from camera mechanics to software, yet we buy our optics. There is nothing wrong with combining the optics with the sensor in principle, I've just never seen it in practice. I was honestly curious.

Thats cool. I worked for two years in the power supply & controls group. We were just given specs for the optical package that included the sensors, so i figured it was done by the same group. Thank you for the insight.