IR Scene Generation Using Defense Mapping Agency (DM)

The capability to produce realistic Infrared images using DMA databases is severely limited by the data itself, most notably the lack of thermal/optical properties. In the proposed effort, a methodology is described/prototyped for including material properties data (MPD)into polygonal databases which can be used as input to IR scene simulators. Two methodologies representing opposite ends of the spectrum are: 1) inclusion of MPD data layers for every polygon which results in high storage requirements and is computationally inefficient but offers the highest degree of flexibility and fidelity, and 2) the use of precomputed "radiance texture maps," for each of the DMA single layer. This method is computationally fast, has low storage requirements, but suffers from reduced flexibility and fidelity. PRA believes the solution lies in a combination of these two methods, where tradeoffs determined by simulator designers and scene dynamics drive requirements. Using an adaptation of methodologies PRA has already developed to produce input databases for the GENESSIS terrain model and Sensor Vision real-time scene generator. PRA will conduct a technical feasibility analysis of the proposed method and develop a system design.