Imagery Manipulation for Simulator Databases

"In military simulation, there is an ever-increasing demand to support more complexity in the visualization of synthetic environments. Tools that automate the generation of terrain databases from overhead imagery are necessary for simulations that requirea high degree of geo-specific 3D cultural content given limited resources. Current tools do not address the removal of time-specific artifacts such as aircrafts, vehicles, and shadows. This reduces database realism and thereby limits the situations inwhich these databases can be used.In Phase I, Diamond Visionics will focus on investigating the technical feasibility of developing a highly-automated process that will perform the following steps: merge and orthorectify various numbers and types of images, automatically recognize andreplace selected objectionable time-specific artifacts from image with realistic and believable non-time-specific data, and generate OpenFlight models of selected items, correlated with the source imagery.Phase I provides a documented baseline, by feasibility studies and risk reduction demonstrations, of a road map to an automated tool for the removal of time-specific artifacts from overhead imagery and a road map to an automatic creation of 3D culturalfeatures from overhead source imagery usable for simulator database development. The technology which will allow overhead imagery to be rapidly converted to simulator databases will have potential application