Video and Image Enhancement Workbench for Aerial Surveillance and Tracking (VIEW-FAST)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming a critical part of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and Close Air Support-Troops in Contact (CAS-TIC) missions. Aerial imagery can provide ground forces with critical information about enemy capabilities and locations. However, monitoring video imagery from an aerial platform is often challenging due to poor image quality and other issues which reduce image interpretability, such as platform/sensor instability, target size, and environmental artifacts. These issues can make it difficult or impossible to discover and monitor important targets and events. To address this problem, we propose a suite of algorithms called Video and Image Enhancement Workbench for Aerial Surveillance and Tracking (VIEW-FAST). VIEW-FAST consists of four modules: (1) image correction to correct blur and boost contrast, (2) image stabilization to compensate for camera shake, (3) super-resolution to reveal fine scene details, and (4) target tracking to reduce the burden on the operators attention and allow multi-tasking. This system will increase sensor operator effectiveness in ISR and CAS-TIC missions, making them more successful and reducing personnel requirements. BENEFIT: The clearest commercial application of this technology is the thousands of UAV imaging platforms currently deployed by various branches of the DoD for ISR and close air support. Other applications include border patrol, search and rescue, news media and law enforcement pursuit.