Enhanced Realtime Millimeter Wave Imaging Using Hardware Acceleration

While the need for effective millimeter wave (mmW) imaging systems is clear, there remains a significant gap in the technology needed to realize it, namely the ability to process and enhance mmW imagery in a real-time manner. This is particularly important because raw mmW images appear very fuzzy, are color mapped, and have regions of intensity that are not normally associated with visible and IR images (such as metals being brighter than thermal objects). For this reason, significant processing is necessary in order to (1) improve the resolution of the captured image, (2) reconstruct the image in the case of a sparse aperture system, (3) compensate for motion during imaging (since most mmW imaging systems have relatively long integration times), and (4) provide adequate region screening and visual mapping. To overcome these limitations, we will develop a novel hardware accelerated processor specific for mmW imaging systems. In the Phase I effort we will survey possible techniques and analyze their suitability for being mapped onto a hardware accelerator. Initial implementations will be performed and preliminary results will be obtained on the mmW system currently being built at the University of Delaware.BENEFITS: The primary market for the resulting product will be government and military applications but we will secondarily bring it to the commercial market. This technology will benefit many sectors including military, security, and surveillance. Specific applications include long-range imaging, automatic target recognition, weapons detection, situation awareness in hostile conditions, monitoring of harbors and costal areas, and all-weather imaging. We will target two deployment methods: 1) accelerated workstations deployed in command and data centers and 2) an integrated mmW camera and accelerated image processor. Since the device created in this project will be small and low power, it will be easy to integrate with a variety of field-deployed platforms whether they be land, sea, air, or space-based.