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TARGET RECOGNITION
Visibility: A Bibliography Morris C. Leibkind and Jack Weiner 1952 This bibliography is intended to provide reference information and background material for the many research and development projects in the field of vision being sponsored by the Committee on Vision. It pro- vides a survey of much of the literature published from 1925 to 1950 on the subject of visibility as influenced by the various physical, psychological, and physiological factors inherent in the observer, target, background and atmosphere, and the engineering applications of visibility data. Such mate- rial as optical physics, the anatomy and physiology of the eye, pathological effects on vision, and routine optometrical testing has been excluded. Only a few of the abstract and index journals issued after 1947 were systematically searched, although some of the leading scientific journals were covered through 1950. Many references appended to recent books and papers have not been included. In addition, systematic searches were made of selected journals in the fields of optics, psychology, and meteorology, from 1925 through 1950, and further references were obtained from many of the papers and books reviewed. An appreciable amount of material was found by consulting the catalogs and special collections of a number of libraries. 90 pp. no figures no tables 2,000 entries Availability: National Technical Information Service (NTISy, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161. 65
The Limiting Capabilities of Unaided Human Vision in Aerial Reconnaissance Seibert Q. Duntley 1953 The ability of the human eye to recognize objects on the ground from moving aircraft is affected by the observer's speed and altitude, by atmospheric and lighting conditions, by the contrast formed by the object and its background, by the size and shape of the object, by impediments to vision imposed by the structure of the aircraft, and by the observer's environment. This report explores limiting visual capabilities by ignoring any limitations imposed by environment or by aircraft structure. Established techniques for the prediction of the limiting range at which objects can be visually detected have been extended by means of new history and new data and guided in application by reconnaissance experiments at model scale. Target recognition has been studied during these experiments, and correlations between recognition and detection have been found for the circumstances and targets encountered in visual aerial reconnaissance. The end product of the work shows the maximum altitudes from which visual recognition of various military objects is possible from high- speed aircraft. The data applies only to a nearly cloudless day when the atmospheric clarity is such that the meteorological range is 10 nautical miles. The selection of this particular weather and lighting condition was purely arbitrary. Other conditions, such as clearer weather, hazier weather, overcast skies, twilight, moonlight, snow cover, etc., could have been explored by continued calculation. The contribution to be expected of optical aids to vision (binoculars, etc.) could also have been explored. 9 pp. 3 figures 1 table 5 references Availability: Committee on Vision, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Wash- ington, D.C. 20418. 66
Characteristics of Tank-Mounted Searchlights for Detection of Ground Targets H. Richard Blachvell, Seibert Q. Duntley, and Winfred M. Kincaid 1953 The detection of military ground targets at night is difficult to accom- plish at satisfactorily short ranges. One method of aiding detection is to provide auxiliary illumination of the ground targets with a searchlight. This report describes a method for determining the searchlight candlepower required for detection of specified ground targets and reports a number of calculations made with this method. The situation of interest involves a tank-mounted searchlight used to aid the detection of enemy tanks by gunners in the tank bearing the searchlight, and by gunners in other tanks deployed in the near vicinity. The enemy tank may be silhouetted against the sky or against terrain varying in reflectance. The gunner may attempt to detect the tank with the unaided eye or may use optical magnification. It is required that the gunners detect the enemy tank at a range of 1,200 yards under some conditions, 1,500 yards under other conditions. The searchlight will be turned on for short periods only, so that the gunner has only a few seconds at most to examine the area illuminated by the searchlight for possible enemy tanks. The results of the calculations with the searchlight candlepower distri- bution are described. 32 pp. 9 figures 12 tables no references Availability: National Technical Information Service (NTIS), 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161. 67
Form Discrimination as Related to Military Problems Joseph W. Wulfeck and John H. Taylor, Editors 1957 The proceedings of the symposium consists of five sessions. Session I was designed to define the problem of form discrimination and cast it into perspective within the framework of military applications and the rubrics of psychophysics, psychophysiology, and general psychology. Session II was designed to provide up-to-date information about some representative technical and procedural aspects of conducting research on form discrim- ination. Session III presented experimental results relating form to the elementary visual detection process. It served to point out those few pieces of research that have been conducted on the role of target shape at or near the brightness or contrast threshold. (Julian Hochberg's paper, not read at the symposium owing to time limitations, is published here in order to supplement the other mo presentations.) Session IV essays the jump from detection to higher-level characterization of the stimulus and acts somewhat as a catch-all session for presentations of unscheduled papers and those difficult to fit in elsewhere. The final session represents the results and conclusions of the symposium. 263 pp. 95 figures 5 tables 60 references Availability: PB 133133, National Technical Information SeIvice (NTIS), 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161. 68
Visual Search Techniques Ailene Morris and E. Porter Horne 1960 This volume of symposium proceedings deals with visual search, which continues to be an important tool of the Armed Forces in the avoidance of midair collisions, in air-sea rescue, in missile detection and guidance, and for general reconnaissance, surveillance, and lookout. Despite the advance, made since World War II in the development of electronic and acoustical methods of target detection, visual performance still plays a vital role in search operations. Field observations have revealed, however, that the patterns and procedures followed in visual search for whatever purpose vary markedly without demonstrable or observable causes for variation. Operations analysis, detection theory, visual psychophysics, and atmospheric optics were considered to be among the areas of possible contributions to the development of a theory of a successful visual search calculation and of experimental verification. The purpose of the symposium was to bring together both operational and research experts on visual search techniques to examine operational practices and visual research data in order to develop optimal techniques and procedures. It began with an invited lecture "Operational Background and Physical Considerations Relative to Visual Search Problems" by ES. Lamar. In the first session, representatives of the Armed Forces presented statements of existing doctrine and of operational needs and described measures that have been taken in practical situations to meet these needs. The military speakers raised questions to be answered by the scientists from their research data~uestions that might provide the guidelines for the compilation of technical information into useful form. Following the exposition of the practical aspects of visual search, there was a session comprised of reports on search strategies and probability functions. The statistical and temporal aspects of the possibility of detection were presented, the ideal sensor system was discussed, and there was an analysis of the factors to be considered in developing optimal visual search procedures. The basic characteristics of the human eye as related to search were then described. Through laboratory data and scientific research reviews, the inherent capabilities of the eye as a receptor, detector, and sensor were defined. 69
Visual performance was illustrated through reports dealing with the effectiveness of visual search in unstructured fields, complex displays, and photographs and in aerial surveillance and vigilance tussle. The comments of the invited discussants were presented as the final item in the venous sessions. The prepared discussions and some of the extemporaneous comments made by other participants have been included in the volume. 256 pp. 112 figures 91 tables 154 references Availability: AD 234502, National Technical Information Service (NTIS), 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161. 70
Feasibility of Describing Visual Demands of Military Jobs Victor Fields, Editor 1962 The problem assigned to the working group was to determine whether the military services are capable of stating the visual demands of military jobs in such precise and objective terms as to be useful for setting visual qualification standards. With this objective in mind, the Navy, the Army, and the Air Force were invited to make presentations in order to describe and explain the methods they employed in job analyses, with special emphasis on the procedures for identifying and defining the visual skills or abilities demanded of personnel in the performance of their assigned duties. The procedures employed by occupational analysts in the military services to determine the required visual skills do not differ from those used to determine the mental, physical, biographical, and other requisites for a position. Thus, the statement of the visual requirements of any position stem from the subjective evaluations made by the occupational analyst. At least three uses of visual standards are identified in the brief summaries of these presentations: (1) entrance, (2) retention, and (3) assignment. 10 pp. no figures no tables no references Availability: Committee on Vision, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Wash- ington, D.C. 20418. 71
Visual Factors Relating to Optically-Controlled Indirect-Fire Point Target Weapons J.W. Gebhard, Editor 1968 Many studies of aerial reconnaissance have been made over the last 25 years. Over 500 papers have been written about what can be seen by the airborne observer using unaided vision, and much attention has been given to what the interpreter can see in an aerial photograph. Despite this effort, specific questions asked about the use of the eyes to detect, recognize, and identify objects in the ground for purposes of navigation, interdiction, rescue operations, and intelligence gathering continue to be very difficult to answer. In recent years, new questions about air-to-ground surveillance are being raised as a result of using artificial sensors" radar, infrared, and electro-optics as a means for extending human visual capability. This report concerns the use of human vision to control an air-to-surface or surface-to-surface weapon through the intermediary of an airborne sensor that transmits an image of the ground scene to a remote video display. The report is limited to visual aspects of the indirect-fire problem. Existing reviews and bibliographies of air-to-ground target detection, recog- nition, and identification were consulted, and a special bibliography that has particular relevance to the problem was prepared. Much, but not all, of this material has been examined: documents that are cited in the text of the report are listed separately under References. A glossary is given that defines terms as they have been used by the working group. 38 pp. no figures 4 tables 292 references Availabiliy: National Technical Information Service (NTIS), 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161. 72
Visual Search 1973 In 1959 the Committee on Vision sponsored a symposium on visual search. Continued interest in this subject prompted the committee to sponsor another symposium to survey theoretical and experimental devel- opments during the past 10 years since the publication of the proceedings of the 1959 symposium. The papers in this volume were presented at the committee's annual meeting in May 1970. Topics covered include: "~perunents in Visual Search," J.R. Bloomfield; "visual Aspects of Air Collision," J.L" Hams; "Dynamic Visual Search Patterns," H.L" Snyder; "Detection of Peripheral Stimuli Under Psychological and Physiological Stress," H.W. Leibowitz; "Studies of Extrafoveal Discrimination and Detection," L-G. Williams; "Modulation Transfer Function Area as a Measure of Image Qualibr," H.L. Snyder; "visual Scanning Behavior," J.W. Senders; and "Visual Information Storage," R.N. Haber. 150 pp. 90 figures 17 tables 104 references Availability: AD 754327, National Technical Information Service (NTIS), 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161. 73
Visual Processing Issues in Computer-Aided Target Recognition: Report of a Workshop Irving Biederman, Azriel Rosenfeld, and Pamela Ebert Flattau, Editors 1988 In the mid-l9SOs, the U.S. Army identified a major shortcoming in current automatic target recognition (ATR) capabilities and mounted a demonstration program to determine if an acceptable level of ATR perfor- mance could be achieved using state-of-the-art systems and multiple-sensor technologies. One of the main objectives of the program was to perform demonstrations and trade-off analyses for the development of the light helicopter. In response to a request from the U.S. Army Human Engineering Lab- oratory, the Committee on Vision agreed to organize a workshop on vision issues related to the use of computer-aided target recognition systems. The resulting report provides a broad evaluation of the visual factors involved in the current design of displays specifically for multisensor, computer- aided target recognition systems. The workshop focused on displays that incorporate: (1) real-world scene information obtained directly from one of several sensors on a vehicle and (2) target-cueing symbols generated by artificial intelligence software operating on incoming data from other sensors. Discussion was organized around three areas: current use of the system, potential directions for display enhancement, and mechanisms for evaluating emerging new systems. 16 pp. 1 figure no tables 4 references Availability: Committee on Vision, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Wash- ington, D.C. 20418. 74
