Inexpensive multispectral imaging device

Multi/hyperspectral imaging is an important technique to obtain color data and spectral monitoring. It is a precise remote sensing technique that includes two or more bands in the visible and invisible spectrum. This study demonstrates the design and construction of a low-cost, multispectral imaging system using a single linear array sensor and a varifocal lens coupled to individual spectral band-pass filters. The system allows the automated data acquisition of raw spectral data for seven spectral bands, each with different wavelengths. The raw data are visualized in real-time to generate images of spectral bands to obtain the desired spectral information on the computer graphical screen. Sensor arrays with spectral responsivity between 0.3 and 1.05 mu m and motorized filter disks with a linear guide are used for acquiring data from specific wavelengths. Axis movement of the imaging device is achieved by a linear guide for spatial monitoring. Seven different bands are scanned and transferred to the computer via motorized band-pass filter sets with the imaging device. The multispectral imaging device has high accuracy with a 0.9936 linear correlation coefficient (r(2)) and averaged noise of the total system is below 1% (0.7%). Although the present configuration uses seven spectral bands including visible and narrow bandpass optical filters to obtain multispectral information from an object, the system is designed to have a replaceable and selectable motorized rotating filter, easily remounted, and adjusted up to forty spectral bands with 20 nm full width at half maximum (FWHM).