Image Optimization for Small Focal Plane Arrays

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While the Office of Naval Research (ONR) continues to develop larger format Focal Plane Arrays (FPAs) to provide wide area coverage (e.g., ever increasing swath width) for Electro-Optics Infrared (EO-IR) sensors, it has been recognized that this approach will lead to ever increasing FPA costs. A more cost effective approach (especially for smaller unmanned aerial system (UAS) platforms), could be defined by an investigation of how to achieve sensor performance using smaller, more affordable FPAs by optimizing the imagery from these systems to meet detection, tracking and identification requirements. This BAA seeks to develop techniques to optimize imagery from passive and active EO-IR imaging sensors based on smaller, less expensive FPAs. Some past and on-going ONR efforts include coded sensor processing, compressive sensing, and "Lucky Imaging" algorithms. There may also be techniques for adding processing to read out integrated circuits (ROICs) that will enable better utilization of smaller FPAs. Although this effort is not intended to cover the development of new EO-IR sensor hardware, including FPAs and ROICs, the impact of this investigation may lead to the proposal and implementation of new sensor hardware architectures. The overall intent of the BAA is the development of image enhancement techniques and methodologies that can be incorporated in processing of imagery from a variety of different small-format EO-IR sensor architectures. This approach can greatly improve the Navy's ability to achieve Information Dominance with a broader spectrum of lower-cost sensors.

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