Imagery Automatic Extraction/Precision Placement of Wavelength-Independent Texture (WIT)
SBIR FY03.2 Topic N03-191
Department of Defense (DOD)/NAVY

The entire solicitation may be viewed at http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/sbir/solicitations/sbir032/index.htm

N03-191 TITLE: Imagery Automatic Extraction/Precision Placement of Wavelength-Independent Texture (WIT)

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems

OBJECTIVE: Generate rapid and accurate real-world WIT maps from national imagery in visual and sensor databases for mission rehearsal and training.

DESCRIPTION: Current automatic methods of generating WIT maps are inherently inaccurate; manual methods, which generate surface material codes (SMCs), achieve simplistic results and are time and labor intensive. Traditional spectral behavior of visual and sensor database scene elements has been via application of SMCs to designated scene elements. These are deterministic representations of a portion of the electromagnetic response (e.g., near infrared) of an object or aggregate of objects to approximate spectral response in a narrow band. Out-of-band response (e.g., radar) is not available or not predictable. WIT maps rely on probabilistic methods to allow characterization of the complete spectral response of database scene elements.

PHASE I: Determine the feasibility of inserting off-the-shelf hardware into a system that extracts WIT maps from national imagery (e.g., digital point positioning data base (DPPDB), Controlled Image Base (CIB)). This system should ingest imagery and existing phototexture; generate accurate emissivity, transmissivity, absorptivity, reflectivity, and radiance functions and textures over the microwave, optical, near-, and far-infrared bands; produce compressed standard texture formats; and accurately index resulting texture to corresponding real-world visual database terrain and culture locations. Establish confidence metrics to guide database developers in the reliability of the resulting products.

PHASE II: Develop and test the WIT map extraction system utilizing national imagery and applying standard lossless compression (e.g., wavelet or JPEG2000) and file formats (e.g., .flt, SHAPE, .dxf, etc.) to a real-world terrain database. Demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the results utilizing sensors of various wavelengths (radar, visual, night vision goggles (NVG), and forward looking infrared radar (FLIR)). Include confidence metrics with the resulting product. Demonstrate storage efficiency and high-bandwidth texture performance.

PHASE III: Prepare user-friendly commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) tools for use by imagery analysts, cartographers, and database developers in civilian and military work environments.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL: Military training and intelligence organizations and commercial enterprises needing rapid, reliable, and accurate visual and sensor database productivity to support fast-response analysis and rehearsal requirements.

REFERENCES:
1. "Pathfinder 2001 Scene Visualization Data Production & Exchange (SVDP/E)," Final Report, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, December 2000.

KEYWORDS: Phototexture; Wavelength Independence; Feature Extraction; Visual Databases; Sensor Databases; Database Tools

Questions about SBIR and Solicitation Topics

TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT:

Hugh Owens
Phone:
Fax:
Email:

2nd TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT:

Alan Herod
Phone:
Fax:
Email:

Between May 1 and June 30, 2003, you may talk directly with the Topic Authors to ask technical questions about the topics. Their names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses are listed within each solicitation topic above. For reasons of competitive fairness, direct communication between proposers and topic authors is not allowed starting July 1, when DoD begins accepting proposals for this solicitation. However, proposers may still submit written questions about solicitation topics through the SBIR/STTR Interactive Topic Information System (SITIS), in which the questioner and respondent remain anonymous and all questions and answers are posted electronically for general viewing until the solicitation closes. All proposers are advised to monitor SITIS (03.2 Q&A) during the solicitation period for questions and answers, and other significant information, relevant to the SBIR 03.2 topic under which they are proposing.