Submarine Imaging Real-time Enhancement (SIREN)

The Submarine Force is in the process of phasing out conventional optical periscopes in favor of digital sensor masts that electronically transmit video to the Control Center. Digital video can be fed directly into an ensemble of automated image processing algorithms, including target detection, tracking, and classification. Unfortunately, the imagery from submarine sensor masts often suffers from a variety ofartifacts, including etched reticle lines, interlacing artifacts, and smudging from water droplets. These artifacts affect image quality and negatively impact the performance of downstream processing algorithms. The current method of manual video correction is highly labor intensive and cannot be performed in real time. In our Phase I effort, we demonstrated the feasibility of our Submarine Imaging Real-time Enhancement (SIREN) system to detect and correct these artifacts in real time. In addition to aset of gold standard video enhancement algorithms and novel artifact removal techniques, SIREN features an image analysis module that detects which artifacts are present and automatically applies the correct enhancement algorithms. In the proposed Phase II effort, we will build a full scope software prototype, introduce additional enhancement algorithms, and evaluate the system across a wide range of operationally relevant scenarios.