Multi-domain, Optical, Non-uniform Adaptive Imaging Technology Oriented Research (MONITOR)
The past decade has seen an explosive growth in the capabilities of imaging sensors operating in visible and infrared bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Cameras embedded in smart phones are approaching space-bandwidth-products of sixteen (16) megapixels. Recent research programs from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have led to imaging systems that are capable of capturing images with over a billion pixels (Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging Sensor (ARGUS-IS), Advanced Wide FOV Architecture for Image Reconstruction (AWARE)). Mid wave and long wave infrared imaging systems have not achieved comparable performance yet but, spurred by detector array developments under tri-service Vital Infrared Sensor Technology Acceleration (VISTA) program, systems that can capture several hundred megapixel imagery are being attempted, such as Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Infra Red (ARGUS-IR). Hyperspectral imaging systems were initially developed for imaging earth from satellites and collected images in over 100 spectral bands in order to gather spectral signatures of different materials. Recent developments have reduced the size and weight of these systems such that they are being considered for tactical use on small to medium size unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). It is also known that, upon reflection, the state of polarization from man-made and a natural material is different, which can be used for target detection and identification. Indeed sensor systems have been designed and built to gather information in spatial, temporal, spectral and polarization domains. One consequence of these advances in imaging sensors has been an explosion in data that needs to be stored, processed and disseminated. A single mission can routinely generate multiple terabytes of data thereby severely taxing resources. One way to attack this problem has been to employ powerful on-board processing to compress the data and perform early image processing to identify regions of interest within the wide field of regard. It should be noted that in a wide area sensor, most of the image data does not contain information of any significance or relevance. For example, wide stretches of sky, ocean or grassy areas do not contain potential targets of interest and hence do not need to be sampled at the same spatio-temporal resolution required for target identification and tracking. Therefore, novel systems have been designed to sample the scene at variable resolution thereby reducing the total data volume. Only those regions that have been determined to contain potential targets of interest are sampled at fine resolution and read out at high frame rates while rest of the areas are monitored at relatively coarse spatio-temporal sampling. However, a similar strategy of space-variant measurements has not been extended to multi-domain sensing involving spectral or polarization measurements. The main objective of this research program is to explore the design and development of sensing systems which make adaptive space variant measurements in multiple domains (space, time, spectrum, polarization). ************************************************************************************************************************************The FULL ANNOUNCEMENT is available on the Grants.gov website by scrolling to the top of the synopsis page and clicking on the "FULL ANNOUNCEMENT" box surrounded by the dotted line at the top of the page.
Office: DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF NAVAL RESEARCH
FOR BUSINESS QUESTIONS:
Rebecca.D.Foster@navy.mil (Contract Specialist)
