A Software Bridge to Connect the USAF SRI to a Model of the Eye

Military and civilian pilots are vulnerable to glare. A terrorist with a laser can light up an entire canopy. If landing, the plane could crash. In action, a twenty million dollar aircraft would be neutralized by a ten thousand dollar, off-the-shelf item. Glare arises from three sources: the atmosphere, the windscreen, and the eye. We must know how light is scattered by each to address the solution. The AF has constructed a Scanning Radiometric Imager (SRI) to measure the glare produced by a windscreen and plans to develop a computer model to simulate effects in the eye. Forward Vision will design, test, and construct a bridge, in the form of a software package, to interpret and pass information from the SRI to the model of the eye. Forward Vision has participated in the design, construction, and testing of the SRI. We have extensive experimental and theoretical experience in optics. In Phase I, we will demonstrate through computer simulation that the Software Bridge will function as needed. We will write software which will (1) model how the scanner functions, (2) emulate a field measurement, and (3) reconstruct that same field as accurately as possible, providing the AF with the required input for the model of the eye.