<title>Real-T1Me Processing Techniques For Tactical Positioning Systems</title>

Abstract

One of the primary problems encountered by a field commander is the timely location and engagement of battlefield targets. In recent years, tremendous advances have been made in gathering and processing photogrammetric data which is being used to develop data bases covering major potential battlefield areas. Through technology developed by the U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratories (USAETL), Fort Belvoir, Virginia, the potential of a new technique for positioning targets detected in the battlefield within minutes after obser-vation has been demonstrated. A brassboard system for tactical positioning was fabricated at USAETL using an Optical Area Correlator (OAC) developed by Boeing under contract with the Air Force. The OAC uses incident light and is capable of correlating real-world imagery with data-base photography. The output signals from the OAC are scene signatures containing less than 400 bits of information. This paper will describe the brassboard hardware and the test results obtained from the OAC when (a) correlating between aerial stereo photographs, (b) correlating real-world signatures obtained at 6, 8, and 10 thousand feet with data-base photographs, and (c) correlating signatures between a 32 feet by 32 feet, 1/600 scale, three-dimensional terrain model located at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, and a photographic mosaic of this same model.© (1978) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.