The scanner uses a laser imaging device, a digital line scan camera, and a high speed frame grabber all controlled by a Windows 2000 PC.  The airborne system scans the ground for pilots who have ejected from their aircraft.

The instrument uses a refractive optical system which collects and focuses reflected laser light from the scanned area on a high speed silicon photodiode array in a DALSA digital line scan camera.  A scan mirror driven by a galvanometer motor, scans the field of view under the aircraft.  A frame grabber in the controlling PC continually reads the data from the camera and processes the data looking for a signal, indicating the pilot was found.  The software uses proprietary "hit recognition" algorithms to distinguish between the true target and false returns. Once the software locks onto the pilot it immediately computes the pilot's position relative to the plane.  This data, is continually updated as new video is generated, and is presented on the PC display for review by the search aircraft personnel, in real time.