Honors Thesis:
Thermal Fusion Night vision for Wildlife Study [2024]
This project focuses on developing a cost-effective digital night vision system tailored for nocturnal wildlife studies. The goal was to create an accessible and practical alternative to expensive night vision solutions, enabling researchers and conservationists to observe and document nocturnal wildlife with improved clarity and precision.
Current Digital Night vision technologies face Challenges
in effectively gathering imaging data, making it difficult to locate, identify, and catalog wildlife in nocturnal wildlife studies.
Thermal Fusion
Imaging overlays imagery from a thermal sensor with that of a digital night vision camera.
This enhances the biological detection and low-light imaging capabilities of both systems.
This project adapted this technology from military-grade night vision systems into a low cost package, inexpensively meeting the imaging requirements of nocturnal wildlife studies.
Project Outcome
The outcome of this project is a comprehensive thesis exploring the development and testing of new night vision systems for nocturnal wildlife studies. It examines existing technologies and how they were adapted through a user-centered design approach, with effectiveness validated in collaboration with wildlife ecologists.
From a technical perspective, the thesis documents the imaging methodology, hardware design, and iterative product development. It also outlines the testing, prototyping, and refinement process, highlighting key challenges and insights gained throughout the project.
Thermal Fusion Night Vision Goggles
Were developed with input from nocturnal wildlife ecology researchers, with a fully functional prototype being produced to demonstrate the feasibility of an effective, low cost night vision system
Infrared Spotlights
Provide invisible illumination in extreme low light scenarios.
Low light Cameras
Provide visible and infrared night
vision imagery.
256x192 Thermal
Cameras
are used on both prototypes, providing adequate thermal imaging resolution while keeping cost low.
Thermal fusion drone camera system
provides remote imagery, utilizing remote image processing to forgo the need for computing hardware in the camera system, with image blending and display taking place on a ground station computer.
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Significance in Project Outcomes And Future Development
This project combined contextual research, iterative design development, and validation to identify imaging, practical, and user-centered requirements for night vision systems in nocturnal wildlife studies.
The resulting design outcomes include two innovative outcomes: an affordable thermal fusion night vision goggle system and a drone camera system. These prototypes highlight the advantages of thermal fusion imaging, such as enhanced low-light performance, detailed visual capture, and biological detection.
Expert engagement and testing validated the designs while uncovering limitations, including resolution constraints due to portable processing in the goggles and transmission issues in the drone system. Addressing these challenges will further enhance the systems’ ability to capture detailed, thermally enhanced imagery.
Beyond the specific prototypes, the project expanded my knowledge in designing and prototyping complex electro-optical systems, addressing user needs, and integrating ergonomic considerations into a complex outcome.
(Background) Note: The thermal fusion night vision goggles and drone camera system developed in this project (Angus Logue, 2024)
Moving forward, these prototypes demonstrate my ability to research, understand, and develop complex systems as design solutions. They highlight my skills in electronics design while serving as a foundation for further development of practical, field-ready thermal fusion night vision systems.