The ability to model and simulate target signatures in a range of backgrounds under a range of environmental conditions are highly desirable as it allows for better understanding and assessment of the vulnerability of our soldiers in the battlefield. One main limitation of using game engine simulation is that they have limited capabilities and fidelity in simulating thermal signatures of targets and background. Physics based simulation software program on the other hand is more capable of simulating thermal properties of the scene and rendering a more physically realistic sensor image. In this study, we used MuSES (ThermoAnalytics), a physics based EO/IR signature simulation software to model and simulate the thermal properties and predicated thermal imagery of a real world scene with moving human targets. We used FLIR thermal IR cameras to capture the scene and the same scene was simulated in MuSES. A comparison of the synthetic and real thermal IR imagery was conducted and the progress made towards creating realistic thermal imagery in the land domain discussed
In order to assess camouflage and the role of movement under widely ranging (lighting, weather, background) conditions simulation techniques are highly useful. However, sufficient level of fidelity of the simulated scenes is required to draw conclusions. Here, live recordings were obtained of moving soldiers and simulations of similar scenes were created. To assess the fidelity of the simulation a search experiment was carried out in which performance of recorded and simulated scenes was compared. Several movies of bushland environments were shown (recorded as well as simulated scenes) and participants were instructed to find the moving target as rapidly as possible within a time limit. In another experiment, visual conspicuity of the targets was measured. For static targets it is well known that the conspicuity (i.e., the maximum distance to detect a target in visual periphery) is a valid measure for camouflage efficiency as it predicts visual search performance. In the present study, we investigate whether conspicuity also predicts search performance for moving targets. In the conspicuity task, participants saw a short (560 ms) part of the movies used for the search experiments. This movie was presented in a loop such that the target moved forward, backward, forward, etcetera. Conspicuity was determined as follows: a participant starts by fixating a location in the scene far away from the target so that he/she is not able to detect it. Next, the participant fixates progressively closer to the target location until the target can just be detected in peripheral vision; at this point the distance to the target is recorded. As with static stimuli, we show that visual conspicuity predicts search performance. This suggests that conspicuity may be used as a means to establish whether simulated scenes show sufficiently fidelity to be used for camouflage assessment (and the effect of motion).
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