Thermal imaging business spins-off, to offer low cost solution

WALTHAM, Mass.--A new thermal imaging company has entered the security market with plans to bring its low cost, but high performance technology to surveillance products. RedShift Systems Corp. spun off from Aegis Semiconductor, a supplier of wavelength monitoring and control solutions, in early June to become an independent company. The company is now in talks with several large security product manufacturers to incorporate RedShift's thermal imaging technology into their security cameras. "Typically thermal imaging cameras run in the $10,000 plus range,' said Matthias Wagner, founder and chief executive officer of RedShift. "We'd like to bring it down to sub $2,000 with room to move down." The goal is also to make thermal imaging more accessible to the mainstream security market, according to Wagner, and the automotive industry. In the automotive market, thermal imaging could activate a collision detection system to alert the driver to a possible collision. RedShift's approach to thermal imaging is different than others in the security market. The company's platform is a passive optical component that shifts long-wavelength thermal infrared radiation to CMOS-visible light. This then allows standard CMOS cameras to now see heat. Wagner expects to sign an OEM agreement with a security product manufacturer before the end of this year. He declined to disclose the names of the manufacturers RedShift is currently in talks with, but anticipates technology to be available to the market in 2006.