Generation of Infrared Synthetic Data for System Training and Testing

OUSD (R&E) CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Sustainment OBJECTIVE: Develop and demonstrate synthetic generation of infrared imagery in a realistic ocean background for objects and vessels on the ocean surface in order to improve operator training and testing of infrared camera systems. DESCRIPTION: There are a wide variety of high quality camera systems for examining the ocean surface from platforms in the air, sea surface or elsewhere. Synthesis of electro-optic data in the visible spectrum for such systems is a well-developed field and represented in many government-owner and commercially available software tools, particularly in the game industry. Products such as Unreal Engine, Unity and Blender provide tools for 3D image creation in a virtual world that captures physically realistic details of optical effects. The Navy seeks analogous solutions that operate in infrared bands such that imagery from infrared camera systems can be generated for purposes of operator training, system testing, and related applications. Proposals should address the commonly available infrared camera resolutions and consider the effects of all physically relevant infrared phenomena. These include, but are not limited to scattering, emissions sources, and environmental conditions from wind and the ocean. Work produced in Phase II may become classified. Note: The prospective contractor(s) must be U.S. owned and operated with no foreign influence as defined by 32 U.S.C. 2004.20 et seq., National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual, unless acceptable mitigating procedures can and have been implemented and approved by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) formerly Defense Security Service (DSS). The selected contractor must be able to acquire and maintain a secret level facility and Personnel Security Clearances. This will allow contractor personnel to perform on advanced phases of this project as set forth by DCSA and ONR in order to gain access to classified information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and its allies; this will be an inherent requirement. The selected company will be required to safeguard classified material during the advanced phases of this contract IAW the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), which can be found at Title 32, Part 2004.20 of the Code of Federal Regulations. PHASE I: Identify a modeling approach for infrared spectrum imagery generation whose implementation can be justified on the basis of physical/optical realism, environmental effects, and in a computational feasibility. Analyze key design considerations assuming a commercially available electro-optic/infrared camera system of at least 640x480 pixel resolution. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed approach and report results for the solution to be developed in Phase II. PHASE II: Develop and test a prototype for the proposed approach. Complete preliminary performance testing using open source surrogate data examples. Apply the prototypic software to generation of data given specifications provided by the Navy for up to 10 example objects on the ocean surface. It is possible, but not certain that the Phase II work will involve classified information. It is possible that the work under this effort will be classified under Phase II (see Description section for details). PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Phase III work will extensively test the prototype fabricated in Phase II and examine results under day and night conditions and well as performance in suboptimal environments and conditions. Potential dual use applications for this technology reside with automation of thermal sensing and imaging systems that require data for model training and system validation. In particular, sensors for evaluating structural heat loss in buildings and vehicles would benefit as well as automatic airborne sensing for search and rescue missions. REFERENCES: 1. FREE FLIR Thermal Dataset for Algorithm Training. FLIR Systems, Inc. https://www.flir.com/oem/adas/adas-dataset-form/ 2. Aguerre, Jose and Fernandez, Eduardo. "ThRend: a ray tracing module for infrared rendering of urban scenes." Proceedings of Building Simulation 2021: 17th Conference of IBPSA. 3. Suffern, K. (2016). Ray Tracing from the Ground Up. A K Peters/CRC Press, April 2016. 4. Horton, Travis & Oline, Alice & Hauser, Nan & Khan, Ming & Laute, Amelie & Stoller, Alyssa & Tison, Katherine & Zawar-Reza, Peyman. (2017). Thermal Imaging and Biometrical Thermography of Humpback Whales. Frontiers in Marine Science, Volume 4, 20 December 2017. 5. National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual (NISP), 32 U.S.C. 2004.20 et seq. (1993). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-32/subtitle-B/chapter-XX/part-2004 KEYWORDS: synthetic data, imagery, infrared, simulation