Sixty years of advanced imaging at the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis: from the Cranz-Schardin camera to computational optics

Abstract

Abstract In 2019, the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis (ISL) is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Since the beginning, advanced imaging technologies were one of the institute’s flagship areas of research and, from the Cranz-Schardin camera to computational optics, ISL never stopped innovating. Each technological innovation is a testimony to its time, and the research works in visionics make no exception to this rule. Each decade was marked by innovations that made it possible to develop means of vision or visualization, which ensure that our institute remains at the forefront of the research in this field. High-speed cameras, holography, lasers, or active imaging systems developed at ISL are examples of this. The science of photon, photonics, still has a bright future ahead, and there is no doubt that the latest discoveries and technological advances in this field will be applied to systems that will allow our armed forces to maintain their technological superiority and our soldiers to carry out their missions with greater security.