Loral Vought Systems Corporation

Arthur Steven Bornowski

Gary Kim Jenkins

James L Nettles

Bruno Jack Evans

David Collis Williams, Jr

A visual recognition system is disclosed for detecting a target within a scene. A LADAR system and method is employed for scanning laser light signals across a scene having a target to be characterized. Laser light reflected from the target is detected and processed into a three-dimensional image. The three-dimensional image is segmented to separate the target from the overall scene. Substantially, only the segmented target data is either displayed locally or transmitted via a narrow bandwidth transmission medium to a remote site for display. The invention finds particular application in military situations where enemy armor is detected and the segmented version of the armor is transmitted via SINCGARS.

Visual recognition system for LADAR sensors

An improved system for using reflected energy signals sensed by light detecting optics to identify flat surfaces that are orthogonal to the detecting optics. A light source generates a laser light beam, the beam is scanned across a target scene, and a reflected signal is sensed by light detecting optics to produce an electrical representation of the reflected signal. The representation is stored in an array in the form of a plurality of data elements. The data elements are sequentially analyzed by comparing the range of each data element with the ranges of a selected number of neighboring elements, and giving the data element under analysis a corresponding 'index.' Data elements whose ranges closely match neighboring data elements are assigned higher indices. Neighboring data elements with high indices therefore signify proximate points on a flat surface, which is orthogonal to the detecting optics. The data elements may be further analyzed by distinguishing elements with higher indices from those with lower indices, to highlight the flatter, more orthogonal surfaces.

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Garland, TX, United States of America

Arthur Steven Bornowski