Comparison of speckle reduction techniques on the identification of human activities in laser range-gated SWIR imaging

摘要

Active imaging systems, including laser range-gated short wave infrared (LRG SWIR) systems, are currently being developed to increase the identification range performance of ground-to-ground electro-optical targeting systems. These systems have several distinct technological and practical advantages over passive systems, but they also suffer from peculiar phenomena, including laser speckle. This paper reports on a study in which the benefits of speckle reduction techniques on the ability of observers to identify human activities were determined empirically. Since no suitable LRG SWIR imagery existed, it was necessary to first develop a simulation of speckle formation in a typical LRG SWIR imager, which also included the chosen speckle reduction techniques. The simulation was then applied to a human activities target set and the resulting imagery evaluated in a perception experiment.