01/29/2007 Student Symposium 2007 Centre for Earth and Environmental Technologies

01/29/2007 Assisted Target Detection for Search and Rescue February 7, 2007 Vladimir Magdin M.Sc. Student Where Next Happens

Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC) Provides scientific and technological support to the Canadian Forces. Array Systems Computing Specializes in computationally intensive, real-time digital signal processing systems Partners and Collaborators

ResearcherPosition% Research Time Dr. James ElderPrincipal Investigator20% Vladimir MagdinM.Sc. Student75% Dr. Bob HouSenior Research Associate20% Dr. Francisco EstradaPostdoctoral Fellow10% ResearcherPosition% Research Time Kevin CannonsPhD Student20% Alumni York University Personnel

Goal: To develop assisted target detection (ATD) algorithms that will improve human target detection performance Major Tasks: Design and implement algorithms that can incorporate cues from various imaging sources to establish spatial probability distributions Research the optimal methods of visualizing the spatial probabilities Original Project Goals

TaskDescriptionStartFinish Recruit Personnel Recruit a postdoctoral fellow, a computer vision and a psychology graduate student Nov 05Mar 06 Complete legal agreements Prepare and sign NDAs and IP agreements between York and Array, allowing sharing of source code Nov 05Dec 05 Single-frame algorithm development Develop and evaluate single-frame statistical target models. Transfer MATLAB code to Array for integration and testing. Dec 05Mar 06 Milestones

TaskDescriptionStartFinish Continuous algorithm development Acquire new search-and-rescue data, and develop foreground and background models by integrating motion and temporal cues. Transfer MATLAB code to Array for integration and testing. Apr 07Dec 07 Develop and evaluate visualization methods Develop psychophysical methodology for visualization of target probability data onto incoming visual data stream. Conduct human-in-the-loop evaluation experiments using the search and rescue simulator Dec 06Dec 07 Final system integration and reporting Refine complete software system, including ATD and visualization algorithms. Transfer final MATLAB/C++ source code to Array for integration and testing. Dec 07Mar 08 Milestones

Technology Current Technology Nonparametric models of target and background pixel statistics. Future Directions Incorporation of motion cues Incorporation of shape cues Multiclass learning and identification

Current Status Database Obtained and analyzed a new dataset Performed manual segmentation and labeling of the ground truth Compiled a train/test ATD database Algorithm Developed proof-of-concept intensity statistics algorithms Successfully transferred code to Array Systems Computing to demonstrate real time performance

Deliverables: Assisted target detection algorithms Assisted target detection software (MATLAB and/or C++) A demonstration of ATD software integrated with Array Systems proprietary hardware for real-time operation Results of human-in-the-loop experiments using the ATD technology at the DRDC SAR simulation system Additional Outcomes: Publications on Assisted Target Detection algorithms Publications on Search and Rescue Simulation results Project Outcome

End Users Primary Applications Search and Rescue The Canadian Forces: Primarily responsible for aeronautical search- and-rescue services in Canada and up to 1,000 nautical miles off our coastlines Other Air-to-Ground Surveillance

Accomplishments after One Fiscal Year Following a joint meeting at Valcartier involving both AIMS and ALERT TD projects, we have agreed to collaborate with the ALERT TD project on defining and evaluating ATD algorithms for visual surveillance. Success Story

There is a strong likelihood that the AIMS project will be extended and will lead to follow-on projects at DRDC. We are exploring the possibility of reprofiling our project to spread DRDC funding out to March We hope to continue to work with DRDC beyond this date. Depending on the outcome of the current project we may seek next-stage support from OCE for this follow-on work. What is Next