Wide-Area Surveillance Prototype System from Identification Fusion Perspective.

摘要

Identity fusion was considered to be one of the major components of the author's efforts to prepare an operational prototype for a wide-area surveillance system. There are some technical challenges to be taken into account in any large-scale fusion system. These problems, which have been named architectural problems, include the following: different types of sensors, different types of systems and subsystems, different types of communication media and communication requirements, different types of information processing techniques, effective presentation to the operators and to the command team (human machine interface), and effective sensor and resource management. While there are some technical challenges in the identification fusion process, operational requirements constitute the other important aspect of the process. The author explains the operational challenges that faced him, starting with the sensors and continuing with the communication media and the fusion node itself. His experience in developing the prototype system showed that sensors, their characteristics, and (sometimes) unreleased parts have a significant effect in the selection, design, and implementation of the appropriate fusion system. As there is no well-defined procedure for the identification fusion process, researchers can benefit from a modular architecture that allows them to plug in and test any kind of identification fusion algorithm they choose. The author also contends that belief theory deserves more attention in the identification fusion implementation process. (5 refs.).