Human signatures in urban environments using low cost sensors

Abstract

ABSTRACT McQ has produced a family of small (98 cm 3 ), inexpensive ($100), unattended ground sensors well suited for urban environments. As a result, a broad range of data has been collected in urban settings. This paper discusses human signatures in urban environments using low cost seismic, infrared, acoustic, and magnetic transducers. Transducer performance and the effects of orientation, building construction, and environmental noise will be focused on. Detection methods used to exploit signatures and resulting performance statistics will also be discussed. Keywords: UGS, sensors, data, detect, urban, disposable, transducers, cost, wireless, mesh 1. INTRODUCTION Conventional Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS) have proven effective at detecting and classifying a variety of targets, though their large size and cost present significant limitations to their application, particularly in urban environments. As a result McQ Inc. has developed iScout TM , a Disposable Sensor System (DSS) well suited for urban environments. The sensors are titled “disposable” due to their small size and low cost when produced in high volumes. The McQ DSS is a network of sensors that report back to a central location such as a Pocket PC. Each sensor is equipped with infrared, seismic, acoustic, and magnetic transducers an d are smaller than a deck of cards. They are projected to cost $10 to $20 each when manufactured in volumes of 1 million to 10 million per year. They will operate in an ad-hoc mesh network configuration with communication ranges of 100m outdoors, assuming clear line of site. For further information on the McQ DSS refer to SPIE papers 6231-41, Disposable Sensor System: low cost UGS for urban operations, and 6248-14, Mesh networked unattended ground sensors. While developing the DSS, a large amount of data was collected and analyzed to determine the capability of small inexpensive transducers. This paper discusses what was learned about human signatures in urban environments using low-cost seismic, infrared, acoustic, and magnetic transducers. Transducer performance and the effects of orientation, building construction, and environmental no ise will be discussed in the following sections. Detection methods used to exploit signatures and resulting performan ce statistics will also be discussed. This effort was sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) as a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program topic. Prior to this, ARL was also investigating the use of very low cost sensors as part of its internal research and development program and later through an Army Technology Objective (ATO) called Disposable Sensors. As a part of the ATO research (ARL) developed a prototype Disposable Sensor to investigate issues related to low cost sensing The ARL sensor is a low cost sensor with technologies consistent with low cost mass production. However, it was designed with considerably more processing resources to facilitate experimentation. The McQ effort, under the SBIR, is an experiment to assess the usefulness of a sensor that can actually be produced for approximately $10.. All information presented herein is in reference to McQ Inc.’s Disposable Sensor System (iScout