Development of hyperspectral image projectors

We present design concepts for calibrated hyperspectral image projectors (HIP) and related sources intended for system-level testing of instruments ranging from complex hyperspectral or multispectral imagers to simple filter radiometers. HIP, based on the same digital mirror arrays used in commercial digital light processing (DLP) displays, is capable of projecting any combination of many different arbitrarily programmable basis spectra into each pixel of the unit under test (UUT) at video frame rates. The resulting spectral and spatial content of the image entering the UUT can simulate, at typical video frame rates and integration times, realistic scenes to which the UUT will be exposed during use. Also, its spectral radiance can be measured with a calibrated spectroradiometer, such that the hyperspectral photon field entering the UUT is well known. Use of such generated scenes in a controlled laboratory setting would alleviate expensive field testing, allow better separation of environmental effects from instrument effects, and enable system-level performance testing and validation. Example potential applications include system-level testing of complex hyperspectral imaging instruments as implemented with data reduction algorithms when viewing realistic scenes, testing the performance of simple fighter-fighter infrared cameras under simulated adverse conditions, and hardware-in-the-loop testing of multispectral and hyperspectral systems.