Our brain has the ability to understand its environment by interpreting all the signals "sensed" by our senses.
In imaging, we focus first on the image, we capture a first level of information using a camera or detector ... but we also associate other sensors to enrich our capacities of interpretation and to bring us as close as possible to the understanding of the environment to be analyzed, or even to interact with it.
Environmental conditions can be extremely varied, complex or even risky for people and equipment used.
When SFT proposes an imaging solution, it is necessary to have analyzed all the environmental parameters and to have precisely determined the nature of the analysis or measure to be carried out. To do this, it is necessary to qualify the technologies to be used in imaging (multi-spectral, hyperspectral, NIR, infrared, TeraHertz ...), to extract the possibilities and limits and to choose a relevant approach, sometimes a combination of different technologies is necessary to best respond to the chalenge posed. The notions of optics are obviously paramount, since the electromagnetic spectrum offers many possibilities for analysis, the choice of the sensor technology (low light level, high dynamic, high speed..)associated with the sources of light(laser, LED, back light...) and the means of acquisition are to be considered with great attention.
Finally, once the data has been acquired and optimized with the appropriate components, it remains to use these data in order to convert them into a setpoint translating either the result of a calculation or a triggering order for a servo-control of a system for example ...
One of best SFT's know-how lies in the ability to develop a complete or partial imaging system, including the ability to process a large amount of pixel data in real time with minimal latency.