Say "HALO" to Hologram-Enhanced Adaptive Optics Published June 15, 2010 By Maria Callier Office of Scientific Research ARLINGTON, Virginia -- Lab-sponsored research of a novel adaptive optics capability may help transform ordinary imaging software into computer-free electronics enabling unmanned aerial vehicles, high-energy lasers, and free-space optical communications systems to run faster and more efficiently than ever before. The High-Altitude Large Optics (HALO) technology--which incorporates the use of holograms--is compact and lightweight, ideal characteristics for inclusion in UAVs and similarly size-constrained platforms. HALO systems also promise processing speeds orders-of-magnitude higher than conventional, computer-based means are able to achieve. Dr. Geoff Andersen, senior researcher with the Laser and Optics Research Center at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, leads a team of researchers who have successfully demonstrated this holographic adaptive optics advance. While traditional imaging software has been the norm for more than two decades, this computer-reliant technology--which requires complex calculations and, consequently, carries high computing costs--is simply not suitable for some military applications. Accordingly, researchers are increasingly focused on replacing the computer-driven imaging software used for various surveillance platforms with HALO-based electronics. Experts anticipate that HALOs will ultimately become the standard in adaptive-optics-based imaging and, further, that the technology may also create entirely new markets for sharper telescope and camera images collected for military purposes.