By Jermyn Chow
A remote control sparked a brainwave that helped airmen in the Singapore air force detect hard-to-spot infra-red lights at any time of the day while saving money on expensive equipment. -- PHOTO: MINDEF
A TELEVISION remote control sparked a brainwave that helped airmen in the Singapore air force detect hard-to-spot infra-red lights at any time of the day while saving money on expensive equipment.
The detector can find infra-red signals, which are invisible to the naked eye, such as those emitted by a Chinook helicopter or other types of craft. The Chinook uses infra-red lights to signal its location at night.
Previously, airmen needed a pair of night-vision goggles to detect the lights.
'Now, we don't have to wait for a pair to be available,' said Military Expert 2 Ong Chin Lin, an assistant engineer from the Air Logistics Group (Rotary Wing) of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF).
The infra-red detector, the size of a canned drink, also costs a fraction, at $25, of a pair of military-grade night-vision goggles, which is about $18,000.
The innovation and 200 other cost-cutting ideas throughout the Ministry of Defence and Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) saved the ministry $207 million last year, up from $139.6 million the year before.
Recent advances in the compensated Germanium bolometer and other far-infra-red detectors (Douglas Advanced Research Laboratories. Research communication, 106)
Memorandum on progress of the infra-red bolometer for determination of the surface temperature of the ocean (WHOI)
Development of laboratory model fatigue crack detection device based on infrared techniques (AFFDL-TR-)
