Daily News Briefs

BAE Systems Avionics Group opened a new Laser Centre of Excellence Monday at its Sensor Systems Division (SSD) facility at Crewe Toll in Edinburgh, Scotland. The new facility will be used for the production of the laser system for the F-35 joint strike fighter electro-optical targeting system. BAE Systems Avionics Group was awarded a contract by Lockheed Martin in September for the design and development of the laser, which will provide precision range measurement and laser-guided weapon designation capability for the targeting system. . . . Kopin Corp., a Taunton, Mass., developer of semiconductor products, announced that its new CyberDisplay 113K EVF ultrasmall, ultralow-power electronic viewfinder system has been integrated into the SpyPen Oboe digital camera, which debuted at CeBIT 2004, being held this week in Hannover, Germany. The camera, manufactured by World Wide Licenses Ltd. for German digital camera company plawa-feinwerktechnik GmbH, features a 2.1-megapixel resolution and a 2x zoom lens. Kopin's CyberDisplay 113K EVF includes the lens, polarizer, backlight and housing, and a 0.16-inch diagonal microsdisplay -- about the size of a grain of rice.