NOVEL TECHNIQUE FOR TARGET ACQUISITION REDUCTION EVALUATION OF CAMOUFLAGE FOR PERSONNEL

OBJECTIVE MEASURES ARE NEEDED OF THE TARGET ACQUISITION REDUCTION (TAR) AFFORDED PERSONNEL BY CAMOUFLAGE; SUBJECTIVE MEASURES ARE EXPENSIVE, UNREPEATABLE AND DIFFICULT TO COMPARE BETWEEN FIELD AND LABORATORY TRIALS. THE OBJECTIVE MEASURES MUST BE BASED ON FACTORS AFFECTING HUMAN PERFORMANCE. WE PROPOSE, IN PHASE I, TO DEVELOP A RELATIVE OBJECTIVE MEASURE OF EFFECTIVENESS (ROME) WHICH WILL PRODUCE OBJECTIVE SIGNATURES OF CAMOUFLAGE. TO ACHIEVE THIS, WE PROPOSE TO EXPLOIT RECENT ADVANCES IN MICROPROCESSOR TECHNOLOGY FOR PERSONAL COMPUTERS AND REAL-TIME IMAGE PROCESSING. IN PHASE II, WE WILL EXTENDTHE METHODOLOGY WHICH WILL ALLOW COMPUTATION OF A UNIQUE "CAMOUFLAGE FINGERPRINT" FOR A TARGET IN A GIVEN BACKGROUND. THIS MULTI-DISCRIMINATOR ROME CAN BE RELATED TO A PROBABILITY OF DETECTION WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE COUNTERMEASURE WORKSTATION (CMWS) RECENTLY DEVELOPED BY US FOR THE US ARMY. FINALLY, WE PROPOSE TO MERGE THIS MODULAR ALGORITHM APPROACH WITH A VARIETY OF HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ELEMENTS IN ORDER TO CONSTRUCT AND DELIVER TO THE US ARMY NATICK RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT & ENGINEERING CENTER A MACE--MOBILE ARMY CAMOUFLAGE EVALUATION--SYSTEM WHICH IS COMPACT, PORTABLE AND CAPABLE OF REAL-TIME OBJECTIVE DETERMINATION OF TAR EFFECTIVENESS FOR PERSONNEL CAMOUFLAGE IN BOTH LABORATORY AND FIELD TRIALS.