History of FLIR testing revisited

This author wrote a paper in 2003 for the SPIE conference summarizing the development of the procedures used to test and verify the performance of Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) systems. In the 20 years since the presentation of that paper, FLIR technology has significantly changed, including many of the key premises and rationale for testing and verification, along with the development of new techniques.

This paper will review the early development of the test techniques that coincided with historic modeling and field testing. Some of the basic theories that served as the cornerstone for early testing and modeling (Johnson Criteria, for instance) have been lost and are not familiar to the test engineers of today. Over the years, new testing techniques have been developed, and new FLIR technologies have emerged (e.g. sampled systems, image processing, etc.). This paper will review the early days of testing and their relation to modeling and field testing data, and will examine new techniques that are paving the way for providing advanced understanding of how the systems of today will work in the field.