Review of current aided/automatic target acquisition technology for military target acquisition tasks

Aided and automatic target recognition (Ai/ATR) capability is a critical technology needed by the military services for modern combat. However, the current level of performance that is available is largely deficient compared to the requirements. This is largely due to the difficulty of acquiring targets in realistic environments but has also been due to the difficulty in getting new concepts from, for example, the academic community, due to limitations for distribution of classified data. The difficulty of the performance required has limited the fulfillment of the promise that is so anticipated by the war fighter. We review the metrics, imagery data bases, and sensors associated with Ai/ATR performance and suggest possible technical approaches that could enable new advancements in military-relevant performance. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.3601879]