For the past five years, in response to the shrinking defense budget, DBA’s president, John Slack, has led DBA Systems in the conversion of two major defense technologies to commercial applications—digitizer and tracking technologies. They have
Published in The Brevard Technical Journal (a Florida Today publication)
by Jan Tucker
For the past five years, in response to the shrinking defense budget, DBA’s president, John Slack, has led DBA Systems in the conversion of two major defense technologies to commercial applications—digitizer and tracking technologies. They have been careful to use the technology they know well, avoiding an expensive, lengthy retraining process for the engineering and manufacturing workforce.
Within five years, DBA’s goal is to serve a market which is 50 percent government and 50 percent commercial. An internal R&D specialist with a background in photochrometry, image processing and electronics, seeks new applications for DBA’s technologies.
As a result, they have several marketable products that contribute to public safety and the medical field, “But,” Slack says, “there are no perfect solutions.” For a variety of reasons, it has been a slow process to penetrate new markets that could make use of the new technology.
Digitizer Technology—from Military to Mammography
DBA is pursuing the medical industry because of its growth potential as the U.S. population ages, health issues will naturally increase. DBA’s long-standing digitizer technology has served the military for many years to digitize film imagery, enabling instantaneous use of Russian satellite imagery. This same technology is now making a significant contribution in the early detection of breast cancer.
This transformation was a two-step process. Slack explains, “It is unique to apply the photochrometric techniques that DBA is noted for, to X-rays. Not only have we adapted our defense technology into commercial applications, but we have adapted some of the defense-oriented software into that same domain.”
After completing the first round of conversion with the digitizer, they were selected by Dupont to adapt it into a nondestructive test system (NDT). The system enables customers to digitize industrial X-rays, providing enhanced images which enable them to extract information and solve defects.
The next evolution of the digitizer was for medical purposes. DBA focused their efforts on mammography since their research revealed a widely accepted position in the radiologist community that help was needed in this area.
According to medical studies, radiologists can see only 7.5 percent to 15 percent of the information on a normal mammogram. “And they can’t diagnose what they can’t see,” says Slack, “When DBA digitizes the X-ray with our new ImagClear digitizer, at least 85 percent of the information can be read.”
This is because ImagClear translates the information on the X-ray into digital information, enabling radiologists to see areas of the X-ray with much higher optical densities, where light doesn’t come through, as well as areas with low optical densities, where normally no image can be seen. ImagClear transforms both extremes of density into readable, digital information. Anecdotal cases indicate that due to this increase in readability, breast cancers can be detected three years earlier using DBA’s ImagClear technology.
“Unfortunately,” reports Slack, “it has taken two years and $2 million to receive proper FDA accreditation for the ImagClear technology.” He is discouraged by this, “In those two years, approximately 100,000 women died of breast cancer and 300,000 received positive biopsies. Who knows how many others we missed.” Currently, however, the mammography equipment is in production, and an OEM reseller in Texas is working to market the technology nationally.
DBA is currently having discussions with the University of Virginia Medical Center to apply their digitizer to other medical areas such as cardiology. ImagClear can be used to provide accurate, 3-dimensional measurements of plaque build-up in arteries, enabling surgeons to scrape the plaque from the arteries without perforating them. The technology can also be applied to renal (kidney) images, digitizing images as small as 20 to 30 microns.
European Applications of the Digitizer
DBA has found the European market willing to examine new technologies in their search for cost-effective solutions. Clyde Submarine Base in Scotland, for example, purchased DBA’s upgraded NDT system in July of this year to measure the amount of corrosion in pipes carrying nuclear fluent.
DBA’s technology is helping the Base control maintenance and repair costs that would otherwise prohibit continued operation. Without the new system, they would be forced to replace all the pipes every time corrosion was detected during an inspection. Digitized X-rays provided by the NDT system enable the Base to replace only the sections of pipe that are corroded. Improvements in DBA’s NDT equipment enable them to scan industrial X-rays with very high optical densities (up to and including 5 millimeters)—providing high sensitivity to contrast.
This same technology can be successfully applied in the US, since 21 percent of our power is provided by nuclear generators. Because the pipes involved are subject to hydrogen embrittlement, and therefore corrode unevenly, we can’t predict where or when the damage will stop. A non-destructive measurement technique would enable us to keep track of the damage and replace only the corroded portions of pipe, efficiently and economically.
DBA recently delivered an upgraded NDT to Siemens in Berlin which will be used to inspect turbine blades. Since these blades are very thick at the base and very thin at the tip, X-raying them with constant energy requires a differentiation in optical density along the length of the blade to detect all defects. Application of this technology could reduce plane crashes, for example, by detecting the extent of the defect in repaired propeller blades.
Although industrial grade X-rays are more expensive than sound or eddy current tests, they provide an accuracy and flexibility required for applications where lives are at stake or potential cost savings are significant.
Target Tracking Technology Keeps Our Eyes in Check
Slack is proud to report, “DBA has built more infrared, UV, and invisible target trackers than any other company in the world.” They are currently delivering 700 trackers for the Avenger (the pedestal-mounted Stinger). Originally having an 8.5 by 11-inch footprint, the tracker has been reengineered to fit on a single card which slides into a PC. Once installed, the PC supports it using its CPU, mass storage, memory, data buses, and displays.
By plugging a video camera into a PC and loading DBA’s software, it’s possible to track the shuttle or an F-16. By changing the track gate to an oval shape, DBA can track the movement of the human eye. They’ve sold a number of the tracking devices to Johns Hopkins, who uses it to diagnose lazy eye syndrome (amblyopia).
This technology can be applied to multiple creative purposes. Slack believes that its versatility makes it their highest potential for success, particularly as an impairment detection device. When an individual is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or is impaired by fatigue, their reflex actions slow appreciably. When a police officer asks a suspected drunk driver to hold their head still and follow his finger with their eyes, he is looking to see how smoothly the eye transits. If the eye jerks, it indicates impairment.
Placed in every automobile, DBA’s tracker could eliminate our problem with drunk drivers. A TV camera turned toward the driver would collect video input and send the output to a PC. The PC tracker notes the smoothness of the eye motion and activates a device that makes it impossible to start the car if the data falls within the range of the impairment algorithms. The device provides high fidelity data and requires that current impairment algorithms be recalibrated—a costly project.
DBA’s final hurdle is to obtain research money to tackle the project on their own, or to convince a beneficiary of the technology, such as the National Institutes of Health or Department of Transportation, to accept the responsibility.
The tracker can be used at sobriety checkpoints. Currently, only 10 percent of those who are impaired are detected by visual methods. The added value of this technology is that once the video images are recorded and codified into the legal system, they serve as admissible evidence of impairment in a court of law.
Multiple human factors applications exist for the tracking technology. It can be placed in a cockpit to determine the operator’s duty cycle with various instruments. It can help avoid disasters if placed in air traffic control consoles or cockpits of commercial airliners, in Amtrak trains, metro systems, 18 wheelers and eventually in all automobiles.
Using a photochrometric process, it is further possible to calculate where the eyes are focused, or the point of regard. Multiple calculations track the eye as it moves. When the eye focuses on an object, the PC can activate whatever device is necessary to create a desired action.
For example, a paraplegic equipped with the tracker can look at a light switch to turn it on or off, look at the thermostat to turn it up or down, focus on keyboard letters to type a message, or numbers on the telephone to place a call.
DBA has sold this capability to the simulation market. It is currently being used for the US Abrams, M1 battle tank simulator. As the operator lies in the simulator “driving” the tank, the tracker keeps tabs on the point of regard. When the tank is hit with a laser, the operator’s degree of impairment can be calculated using this information. You can even tell if the operator would have been blinded by the laser.
The tracker can be used to collect accurate data for the advertising industry. Market researchers can assemble a focus group to look at copies of an advertisement. By tracking where their eyes focus as they scan the ad, they’ll know what portion of the ad is getting most of their attention. If it’s a tobacco ad, for example, the advertisers will be clued to place the surgeon general’s warning in areas where customers are less likely to notice it.
What new tricks will our PC of the future perform? DBA’s tracking system can replace the mouse. Knowing the point of regard, the PC can enable you to simply look at a file to open or close it and focus on an object to move it. No more point and click—just continue typing—“focus and fly!”
Each of these new applications has been accomplished without retraining DBA’s engineering or manufacturing workforce. Slack describes this process as a further evolution of technology applied to many different problems.
It may be a natural progression for technology, but it’s not so natural for the marketplace. Even with the best planning and analysis, Slack admits that it’s still difficult to make these conversions. “We’re working with a different customer set, and subject to a different criteria for success.” It is a slow process to develop name recognition, but people are beginning to seek DBA’s expertise. Slack believes there is enough government business to afford them the time to earn the reputation in the new markets.