Precision Targeting

The ability to detect and identify military targets is crucial for any air-to-air or air-to-ground combat ID or surveillance missions. This ability can be greatly improved if there are a variety of different technologies for target detection and discrimination, each responsible for a specific characteristic. The need to search for new target characteristics is driven in part by the continuing proliferation of countermeasures, including deployment of decoys and other deceit and concealment tactics. Polarization signature is the unique polarization response of a target, affected only by the constitution and the shape. The proposed effort aims to develop an IR polarization imaging system based on an innovative Micro Patterned polarization filter technique, which can be integrated into the commercial camera platform. Although the benefits of polarization imaging have been demonstrated at the conceptual level, development and deployment of military operator-oriented polarization imaging products have been thwarted by the complicated measurement scheme and by the lack of reliable polarization management devices and components. The focus of this proposal is to increase the level of maturity of the proposed polarization-imaging technology. A working prototype system will be demonstrated by integration of the Micro Patterned polarization filter into an off-the-shelf camera platform.