Examination of soldier target recognition with direct view optics

Frederick H. Long; Gabriella Larkin; Danielle Bisordi; Shauna Dorsey; Damien Marianucci; Lashawnta Goss; Michael Bastawros; Paul Misiuda; Glenn Rodgers; John P. Mazz

doi:10.1117/12.2277890

5 October 2017 Examination of soldier target recognition with direct view optics

Frederick H. Long, Gabriella Larkin, Danielle Bisordi, Shauna Dorsey, Damien Marianucci, Lashawnta Goss, Michael Bastawros, Paul Misiuda, Glenn Rodgers, John P. Mazz

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 10432, Target and Background Signatures III; 104320E (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2277890
Event: SPIE Security + Defence, 2017, Warsaw, Poland

Abstract

Target recognition and identification is a problem of great military and scientific importance. To examine the correlation between target recognition and optical magnification, ten U.S. Army soldiers were tasked with identifying letters on targets at 800 and 1300 meters away. Letters were used since they are a standard method for measuring visual acuity. The letters were approximately 90 cm high, which is the size of a well-known rifle. Four direct view optics with angular magnifications of 1.5x, 4x, 6x, and 9x were used. The goal of this approach was to measure actual probabilities for correct target identification. Previous scientific literature suggests that target recognition can be modeled as a linear response problem in angular frequency space using the established values for the contrast sensitivity function for a healthy human eye and the experimentally measured modulation transfer function of the optic. At the 9x magnification, the soldiers could identify the letters with almost no errors (i.e., 97% probability of correct identification). At lower magnification, errors in letter identification were more frequent. The identification errors were not random but occurred most frequently with a few pairs of letters (e.g., O and Q), which is consistent with the literature for letter recognition. In addition, in the small subject sample of ten soldiers, there was considerable variation in the observer recognition capability at 1.5x and a range of 800 meters. This can be directly attributed to the variation in the observer visual acuity.

Citation Download Citation

Frederick H. Long, Gabriella Larkin, Danielle Bisordi, Shauna Dorsey, Damien Marianucci, Lashawnta Goss, Michael Bastawros, Paul Misiuda, Glenn Rodgers, and John P. Mazz "Examination of soldier target recognition with direct view optics", Proc. SPIE 10432, Target and Background Signatures III, 104320E (5 October 2017); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2277890

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
11 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Target recognition

Image processing

Probability theory

Visualization

Eye

Modulation transfer functions

Brain

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years