Optronic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to devices incorporating both optical and electronic components used for the detection, control, or measurement of light signals
2. Pertaining to technology combining optics and electronics to form systems such as sensors, imaging, or communication apparatus
3. Describing equipment or methods that integrate light manipulation and electronic processing in applications like surveillance, targeting, or data acquisition

Etymology: "Optronic" is a blend of "opto-", from Greek "optikos" (relating to sight, as in "optic"), and "electronic." The result describes devices and systems that combine light-based components with electronic ones, such as sensors, cameras and fibre-optic equipment in which signals move between optical and electrical forms. The word is a modern technical coinage built the way many engineering terms are: two existing words are fused and the pieces overlap in meaning rather than being joined end to end. Its parts are the "opto-" prefix, which carries the idea of light and vision from Greek, and "electronic," which descends from the Greek "elektron," amber, through the study of static electricity. Together they name a field in which the two technologies are inseparable.

Synonyms: electro-optical, optoelectronic