Development of Tool to Assess the Impact of Off-shade/Specification Samples on Visual and Signature Performance Requirements

The proposed program will demonstrate and deliver an ACU Visualization Toolkit, based on concepts developed by Surface Optics Corp under Army Phase I SBIR funding. The concept is an advanced optical hardware and graphics software system that can be used by U.S. Army Natick Soldier RD&E Center to simulate the in-combat appearance of patterned fabric used for Army Camouflage Uniforms (ACU). It will provide capability to evaluate not only conformance to shade and pattern specifications, but visualize the camouflage performance of ACU fabrics on virtual soldiers inserted into real-world backgrounds. Under this Phase II effort, SOC will extend the HSAnalysis software interface for the Surface Optics SOC710-VP hyperspectral radiometer, a 120 band camera system that is currently used in military sensing and industrial QC applications. This code includes image processing algorithms typically used in remote sensing and military target signature analysis. SOCs concept links the capability for materials spectral analysis with proven commercial and open source content generation and visualization tools, adapted to support 3D modeling and spectral rendering of photorealistic soldier models in visible, NIR and SWIR wavelength domains. An immediate application for this system is as a decision aid in granting waivers for ACU fabric that is marginally off-shade with respect to ACU color specifications. A realistic virtual test system would complement existing test procedures for shade matching of standard and sample fabrics by SME observers or digital photometry.