DFAD-PLUS: A DATA FUSION METHODOLOGY FOR UPDATING AND INTENSIFYING DFAD USING IMAGE PROCESSING ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE TERRAIN ANALYSIS

PHASE I OF THIS PROPOSAL WILL DESIGN THE METHOD FOR INTENSIFYING AND UPDATING DFAD DATA TO MEET TERRAIN ANALYSIS SPECIFICATIONS THROUGH A UNIQUE DATA FUSION APPROACH. THE APPROACH INVOLVES IMAGE PROCESSING (IP), ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, TERRAIN ANALYSIS (TA), AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) TECHNIQUES. THE DATA FUSION ND ANALYSIS WILL USE A "BLACKBOARD INTERFACE" MENU FOR THE FRONT END, WHICH WILL IN TRUN INVOKE PARALLEL PROCESSING OF DFAD, DTED, MSI (SPOT, TM, OTHER PLATFORMS), AUXILIARY DATA, AND PREBRIEF/HISTORY DATA. THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COMPONENT OF THE FRONT END MAKES HIGHLY EFFICIENT USE OF RULE-BASED AND PROCEDURAL KNOWLEDGE SOURCES, AS WELL AS MULTIPLE CONTROL STRATEGIES AND MULTIPLE KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION SCHEMES. THE IMAGE PROCESSING, TERRAIN ANALYSIS, AND G.I.S., COMPONENTS FORM THE CORE OF THE PACKAGE AND INCLUDE FULL CAPABILITIES FOR ENHANCEMENT, CLASSIFICATION, COORDINATE TRANSFORMATION/MAP PROJECTION, OVERLAY, MASKING, SEGMENTATION AND REGION IDENTIFICATION AND RASTER-TO-VECTOR CONVERSION FOR DFAD-COMPATIBLE OUTPUT. THE DESIGN OF THIS INTEGRATED SYSTEM WILL ALLOW OPERATIONAL PRODUCTION OF UPDATED AND INTENSIFIED DFAD DATA. PHASE II WILL REFINE THE SYSTEM TO PRODUCE NEW DFAD DATA FROM MSI WHERE CURRENT DFAD IS NOT AVAILABLE. THE PROTOTYPE ENVIRONMENT WILL BE IN ADA USING A MICROVAX II WITH INTELLIGENT PC/AT OR 386-BASED WORKSTATIONS.