Real-time, multiple hot-target tracking and multi-spectral fusion

The use of technology to enhance a user interface has always been the driving force for new and upcoming research. This is of even more importance when the technology is being used by the armed forces and needs to improve the soldier's situational awareness in hostile conditions. Night vision goggles can provide a tactical advantage to soldiers by giving them the ability to see when their foes cannot. Digital night vision goggles can also support algorithms that improve tactical advantage even further by cueing the soldier under certain conditions. However, cueing can also prove to be a distraction. We have developed several algorithms that can be used to track a thermally hot target through a scene and have explored several methods of presenting the information to the user through the display. Our target hardware is a four-aperture, three spectral band night vision goggle; the goggle includes stereo intensified visible/near infrared, short wave infrared and longwave infrared sensors. Thermal imagery is used to detect and track hot-targets and this information is used in several cueing schemes fused into the overall scene displayed to the user.