ADVANCED IMAGE PROCESSING METHODS FOR SMART MUNITIONS SEEKERS

THIS SBIR PROPOSAL, "INTELLIGENT ALGORITHMS FOR SMART MUNITION SEEKERS," HAS TWO MAJOR OBJECTIVES: (1) TO DETERMINE THE HIT-RATE AND FALSE-ALARM RATE OF THE SR&E SEGMENTOR AND TARGET EXTRACTOR USING A COMPREHENSIVE DATA BASE; AND (2) TO EVALUATE AND DETERMINE THE TECHNOLOGICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR DEVELOPING A REAL SEEKER. TO ACCOMPLISH THESE TWO GOALS, SEVERAL RESEARCH STAGES HAVE BEEN SET FOR EACH TASK: TASK 1. STAGE 1: IDENTIFICATION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL DATA SETS; STAGE 2: RESEARCH DESIGN FROM A DATA SET PERSPECTIVE; STAGE 3: RESEARCH DESIGN FROM A TARGET EXTRACTION PERSPECTIVE; AND STAGE 4: HIT-RATE AND FALSE-ALARM RATE ANALYSES. TASK 2. STAGE 1: BENCH MARK ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESSING TIME; STAGE 2: ESTABLISHING A BENCH MARK FOR SEGMENTATION QUALITY; STAGE 3: SPEED OPTIMIZATION FROM SOFTWARE CONSIDERATIONS; AND STAGE 4: SPEED OPTIMIZATION FROM THE HARDWARE VIEWPOINT. THE PRIMARY IMAGERY FOR DATA ANALYSIS IS FLIR SCENES. RECENT ADVANCEMENTS IN LASER RADAR TECHNOLOGY WARRANT INVESTIGATION INTO THE CAPABILITY OF RANGE IMAGERY FOR TARGET RECOGNITION.