Chief Editor Stephen G. Anderson and Senior Editor John Wallace bring you the latest in photonics news in our monthly News Nuggets series. ; Catch up on the latest news with Chief Editor Stephen G. Anderson and Senior Editor John Wallace.; Anthony Johnson heads the Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research (CASPR) at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, MD. Johnson and members of his team describe the center's femtosecond laser.; LFW Chief Editor Steve Anderson and ILS Chief Editor David Belforte report on opening day of Laser, World of Photonics in Munich, Germany.; Pangolin's LASORB provides electrostatic discharge protection for all types of laser diodes.; Gordon McKenzie or Michelson Diagnostics discusses the Michelson OCT system and its use for skin imaging.; A collaboration between Andor Technologies, Fairchild Imaging, and PCO, newly developed "scientific CMOS" offers high-resolution rapid imaging with low noise and wide dynamic range.; Chris Risser and Stefano Noto discuss Universal Laser Systems' line of CO2 marking and engraving lasers for OEMs; CO2 lasers; laser engraving; laser marking; OEM lasers; Universal Laser Systems; Optimax has the expertise to make a broad range of custom optics with high tolerances and with fast delivery times.; Tom Hausken updates his market forecast during CLEO 2009.; Dr. Alexander Laskin provides an overview of MolTech and discusses the company's beam shaping optics products.; beam shaping; Laser Munich; MolTech; optics; Herman Chui of Newport describes the Alliant fiber laser and other lasers introduced by Newport at Laser Munich.; Catch up on the latest news with Chief Editor Stephen G. Anderson and Senior Editor John Wallace.; Jason Eichenhholz, CTO, highlights some of Ocean Optics' new products at Laser Munich.; ILS Chief Editor David Belforte and LFW Chief Editor Steve Anderson report on day 1 of Laser World of Photonics in Munich, Germany; economy; industrial lasers; Laser Munich; Laser World of Photonics; View some of the highlights from the exhibit floor of CLEO 2009 held June 2-4 in Baltimore, MD.; Francois Salin, Vice President & CTO of Eolite Systems, describes the Octopus Multi Fiber Rod Type Fiber Laser.; RenewableEnergyWorld.com talks with Chris Anderson from Borrego Solar about his off grid home in Peterborough, New Hampshire.; bioenergy; solar energy; IPG Photonics, KMLabs, Orbits Lightwave, and TOPTICA Photonics received honorable mentions in the 2009 PhAST/Laser Focus World Innovations Awards announced at CLEO 2009.; Animation of the Linac Coherent Light Source at the Stanford Linear Accelerator in Menlo Park, CA.; Karsten Konig, CEO of JenLab Group, explains his company's system for high-resultion cellular imaging of skin.; Fedor Karpushko, CEO, describes how Klastech's light sources are able to provide high efficiency with low power.; LFW_ CLEO09_newport; Stuart Woods of Coherent describes new lasers introduced at Laser, World of Photonics 2009.; The American Physical Society (APS) and The Optical Society (OSA) are organizing LaserFest, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the laser through a series of events and programs in 2010.; A pco.dimax camera from PCO Imaging (Kelheim, Germany) captures toy cars breaking through a small brick wall. The 1920x1080-pixel-resolution capture was recorded at 200 frames/s and is played at 25 frames/s. ; The OPTOmism conference, presented by OIDA, begins on May 18 in Santa Clara, CA, with an Executive and Investor Forum, and continues May 19-20 with a comprehensive Technical Conference.; Red wine spilling from a falling wine glass is captured by the high-speed Weisscam HS-1 from Weisscam (Munich, Germany) at 950 frames/s. The Weisscam HS-2 has frame rates up to 4000 frames/s.; UCLA researchers? novel, continuously-running camera, based on photonic time stretch, captures images at 6 million frames per second.; 6 million fps; 6 million frames per second; camera; ccd; CMOS; optical; optics; photonic time stretch; UCLA; UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science; University of California-Los Angeles; World's fastest camera; Watch an animation of the beamline at the National Ignition facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Construction of the NIF was recently completed, and the official dedication of the facility is scheduled for May 29.; David Clarke of Litron Lasers (Rugby, England) demonstrates the ruggedness of his company?s lasers, but in a way that will make any laser engineer cringe. ; Laser Focus World; lasers; The OL 490 Agile Light Source redefines existing technologies and unlocks new capabilities for programmable spectral sources. It produces high-resolution spectra via a flexible liquid light guide from 380 to 780nm with under 5 nm FWH bandwidth peaks.; OptoIQ Laser videos are aggregated video content from ten optoelectronics related PennWell websites.

In a talk during Industrial Vision Days, Vlad Tucakov from Point Grey Research describes the choices available among interface standards, future requirements, and the advantages and drawbacks of next-generation interfaces.; camera interfaces; point grey research; vision systems design; At the International Machine Vision Standards booth, Christoph Zierl from MVTec Software demonstrates how the GigE Vision standard enables different cameras and software programs to work together.; GigE Vision standard; MVTec Software; vision systems design; At the International Machine Vision Standards booth, Vincent Rowley from Pleora Technologies describes the latest version of the GigE Vision standard and some of the new classes of products that it enables.; GigE Vision; Pleora Technologies; vision systems design; Jeff Fryman, director of standards development at the AIA, demonstrates the validation framework for GigE Vision. Manufacturers must submit their products for testing to ensure compliance with the standard.; GigE Vision compliance; vision systems design; At the International Machine Vision Standards booth, Eric Carey from DALSA shows how GenICam over Camera Link makes it easier to control serial camera and frame grabber graphical user interfaces.; camera link; GenICam; vision systems design; Uwe Artmann from Image Engineering discusses the work of the EMVA 1288 standard group to develop common descriptions of camera parameters such as QE and noise so that cameras may be compared to meet specific needs.; EMVA 1288; international machine vision standards; vision systems design; The AIA, EMVA, and JIIA have agreed to cooperatively develop and promote global machine-vision standards. The groups hope to create a global process that emphasizes openness, transparency, and fairness.; AIA; EMVA; JIIA; machine vision standards; vision systems design; Dr. Olaf Munkelt, managing director of MVTec Software and chairman of the VDMA Machine Vision Group, reviews the state of the global machine vision market during the past year and identifies regions of growth.; machine vision; MVTec Software; VDMA; vision systems design; Paul Kellett, director of market analysis for the Automated Imaging Association, foresees a modest recovery in the machine vision market by mid-2010, and opportunities in manufacturing related to new energy sources.; automated imaging association; vision 2009; vision market; vision systems design; Vision Systems Design editor-in-chief Conard Holton provides an overview of what to expect for coverage of this year's VISION trade show and exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany -- right from the show floor.; camera link standard; vision 2009 show; vision systems design; Videos brought to you by Vision Systems Design