NEXT GENERATION VIDEO TRACKER TECHNOLOGY

VIDEO TRACKING HAS EVOLVED OVER THE PAST FIFTEEN YEARS FROM SIMPLE CONTRAST TRACKERS TO MORE COMPLEX AND "INTELLIGENT" TRACKING SYSTEMS BASED UPON SCENE INTERPRETATION AND OBJECT IDENTIFICATION METHODS. RESEARCH IN THE PAST DECADE IN AUTOMATIC TARGET RECOGNITION AND REALTIME TRACKING METHODS HAS PRODUCED A NEW GENERATION OF ALGORITHMS APPROPRIATE TO THE TRACKING REQUIREMENT. WHILE SOME OF THE ALGORITHMS ARE PROPRIETARY AND THE CLOSELY GUARDED SECRETS OF COMPANIES RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT, A VERY LARGE PERCENTAGE ARE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. THESE ALGORITHMS ARE THE TOOLS BY WHICH THE TRACKING FUNCTION CAN BE PERFORMED. WSMR IS A NATIONAL LEADER IN TRACKING TECHNOLOGY, BUT THE ALGORITHMS EMPLOYED IN THE REAL-TIME VIDEO TRACKER ARE OVER TEN YEARS OLD, AND MANY IMPROVED "IMAGE INTERPRETATION" ALGORITHMS EXIST THAT WILL FURTHER EXTEND THE RTV CLASS OF TRACKING SYSTEM. TSI WILL PERFORM RESEARCH UNDER THIS CONTRACT TO SURVEY EXISTING TRACKER ARCHITECTURES, DEVELOP A CONCEPUTAL DESIGN OF A MODERN TRACKER ARCHITECTURE, SYNTHESIZER TRACKER ALGORITHM REQUIREMENTS, AND IDENTIFY AND EVALUATE EXISTING ALGORITHMS AND EMERGING RESEARCH RESULTS AGAINST THESE CRITERIA. A REPORT WILL BE PREPARED THAT SUMMARIZES ALL OF THE RELEVANT INFORMATION, IN TECHNICAL REPORT FORMAT, SUITABLE FOR DISTRIBUTION INTERNAL TO THE GOVERNMENT. SINCE MUCH OF THE TARGET RECOGNITION WORK IS BASED UPON WEAPONS SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS, A PORTION OF THE FINAL REPORT WILL PROBABLY BE CLASSIFIED.