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http://dx.doi.org/10.5762/KAIS.2017.18.5.557

A Study on the quantitative measurement methods of MRTD and prediction of detection distance for Infrared surveillance equipments in military  

Jung, Yeong-Tak (Defense Agency of Technology and Quality (DTaQ))
Lim, Jae-Seong (Defense Agency of Technology and Quality (DTaQ))
Lee, Ji-Hyeok (Defense Agency of Technology and Quality (DTaQ))
Publication Information
Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society / v.18, no.5, 2017 , pp. 557-564 More about this Journal
Abstract
The purpose of the thermal imaging observation device mounted on the K's tank in the Republic of Korea military is to convert infrared rays into visual information to provide information about the environment under conditions of restricted visibility. Among the various performance indicators of thermal observation devices, such as the view, magnification, resolution, MTF, NETD, and Minimum Resolvable Temperature Difference (MRTD), the MRTD is the most important, because it can indicate both the spatial frequency and temperature resolvable. However, the standard method of measuring the MRTD in NATO contains many subjective factors. As the measurement result can vary depending on subjective factors such as the human eye, metal condition and measurement conditions, the MRTD obtained is not stable. In this study, these qualitative MRTD measurement systems are converted into quantitative indicators based on a gray scale using imaging processing. By converting the average of the gray scale differences of the black and white images into the MRTD, the mean values can be used to determine whether the performance requirements required by the defense specification are met. The (mean) value can also be used to discriminate between detection, recognition and identification and the detectable distance of the thermal equipment can be analyzed under various environmental conditions, such as altostratus, heavy rain and fog.
Keywords
thermal imaging observation device; infrared ray; Minimum Resolvable Temperature Difference(MRTD); quantitative indicators; detectable distance; environmental conditions;
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