Hood Tech has achieved National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS) level 9 for airborne UAV imagery

When Hood Tech began producing 800-gm video-camera turrets in 1998, it enabled an entirely new class of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Image quality delivered at that time would be considered primitive today, but 10 years ago, operators of these small UAVs were happy to receive any real-time video at all. A decade later, customer expectations have escalated; National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS) image-quality metrics are now being applied.

According to Hood Tech’s Dr. Andy von Flotow,“NIIRS 8 is no longer enough to stay ahead of expectations; we are now building NIIRS 9 imaging systems, and we are developing further improvements.” The achievement of NIIRS 9 is only the most recent example of the commitment by Hood Tech to provide the very best imaging equipment for real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance use by airborne video operators around the world.

Hood Technology Corp. Vision, Inc. (Hood Tech) designs and manufactures imaging and video processing systems for manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, boats, land vehicles, and stationary mounts. The reliability and utility of Hood Tech’s daylight and thermal imaging products has been demonstrated over more than 500,000 hours of operations in a variety of temperatures, humidity, dust, smoke, haze, and other environmental factors (alticamvision.com).

Hood Technology (hoodtech.com) was founded by Dr. Andy von Flotow in Hood River, Oregon in 1993. In addition to stabilized imaging systems, Hood Technology develops, tests, and manufactures launch and retrieval systems for a variety of UAVs and monitors blade deflections in industrial turbines and jet engines, a diagnostic method for anticipating future failures (hoodtech.com).

Gary Mortimer

Founder and Editor of sUAS News | Gary Mortimer has been a commercial balloon pilot for 25 years and also flies full-size helicopters. Prior to that, he made tea and coffee in air traffic control towers across the UK as a member of the Royal Air Force.