Rapid database prototyping of IR images using simplified physics laws
Peter W. Pachowicz, Clarence P. Walters, James R. Bonick, Gary F. O'Brien · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2002
The acquisition a robust set of IR imagery is frequently impossible through the traditional image collection process. On the other hand, the use of a full-scale simulation is too time consuming and frequently produces unrealistic images. Therefore, other methods are sought that would exploit a small subset of sample real-world images for rapid database prototyping. This paper presents a fast and simple method of high-resolution target image insertion into a low-resolution image of a terrain. The method exploits a naive physics paradigm. First, a high-resolution target image is diffused using a Gaussian kernel and on-target zooming effect. A target binary mask guides the diffusion process. The diffused image is re-sampled onto a low-resolution target image. Next, a down-sampled target image is inserted into a given terrain image using two target insertion/diffusion processes and additional effects. These diffusion processes eliminate contrasts at the border area of a target and on the terrain/background. Background-to-target diffusion extends the heat of overlapped terrain pixels over a target section. Target-to-background diffusion radiates and overlaps target heat over the border area of the adjacent section of the terrain. Developed processes mirror the physics of heat propagation and diffusion, and apply weighted pixel mixing to eliminate target insertion contrasts. Given a set of high-resolution turntable data and a set of terrain images, a training database can be generated within a short time. The number of parameters controlling the insertion process has been decreased to the minimum and brought into a control panel. Each parameter has understandable physical meaning and has assigned a meaningful range of values.