Colour-the-INSight: combining a direct view rifle sight with fused intensified and thermal imagery

Abstract

We present the design and evaluation of a new demonstrator rifle sight viewing system containing direct view, red aim point and fusion of an (uncooled, LWIR) thermal sensor with a digital image intensifier. Our goal is to create a system that performs well under a wide variety of (weather) conditions during daytime and nighttime and combines the advantages of the various sensor systems. A real-time colour image with salient hot targets is obtained from the night vision sensors by implementing the Colour-the-Night fusion method (Hogervorst & Toet, 2010) on the on-board processor. The prototype system was evaluated in a series of field trials with military observers performing detection and identification tasks. The tests showed that during daytime the addition of a thermal image to direct vision is advantageous, e.g. for the detection of hot targets. At nighttime, the fusion of thermal and image intensified imagery results in increased situational awareness and improved detection of (hot) targets. For identification of small (handheld) objects, the technology needs to be further refined.