Efficient, Collaborative Image Processing and Flow Assingnment with Filed of Viw Coverage in Expendable Local Area Sensors in a Tactically Interconnec

The Expendable Local Area Sensors in a Tactically Interconnected Cluster (ELASTIC) concept is a set of small, ballistically distributed optical imaging sensors that form an ad hoc wireless sensor network (WSN) that provides real time information to a tactical decision maker. ELASTIC provides the infrastructure and technologies to enable quick deployment, sensing, processing, and communication. This proposal addresses four key technical areas for ELASTIC: a) Suitable Imaging Systems: Wireless sensor nodes with imaging systems. b) Low-Power Wireless Network Technologies: Peer-to-peer ad hoc network capabilities and challenges in collaborative, distributed, and localized algorithms, including WSN coverage and optimal data flow assignment. c) Signal Processing: New and novel approaches to signal processing in a WSN, including collaborative image processing and object tracking. d) Spatially Locating Deployed Sensor Nodes: Location discovery with GPS nodes used as beacons to seed iterative multilateration techniques for locating non GPS nodes. The TechFinity-University of Wisconsin, Madison team has expertise in wireless networks, sensor networking, image processing, and algorithm development. In this Phase I study the team will investigate the feasibility of the ELASTIC concept. In Phase II and Phase III the team will demonstrate its design, at first in benign environments, and then in demanding operational environments, such as the tactical battlefield, urban military operations, and surveillance of vulnerable commercial assets.