Operational Ocean Instrumentation, Measurements, and Data/Information Dissemination Systems: Digital Camera Visibility Sensor

Visibility is a crucial safety issue in all transportation fields, and current technology is inadequate for measuring visibility for a number of reasons including (but not limited to) limited area coverage, overgeneral categorization of visibility conditions, expense, need for direct operation and calibration, and lack of ruggedness. Having demonstrated the practicality of its video-based visibility measurement approach in Phase I, IEM Corp. proposes to continue the work begun and create a finalized, commercializable prototype of the Video-based Visibility Sensor System (V2S2). The final result of this research and development work would be a system which would be superior to any current-art or near-future contemplated system in the following areas: cheaper (by at least 60%), more accurate in both visibility distance measurements and in characterizing large areas of variable visibility, far more rugged, completely automatic in both calibration and operation, built-in networking and control features, long-term independent operation, 24-hour year-round operation with real-time measurement updating, unique and proprietary algorithms for visibility calculation, use of natural/current view features rather than custom installed targets, measurement over wide areas, efficient combination of multiple algorithms through neural net application, direct scene transmission with comparative images, and other innovations detailed in the text of the proposal.