N092-104 TITLE: Advanced Real-Time Imagery Fusion for Targeting and Mission Planning Using Volumetric Display

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Battlespace, Human Systems, Weapons

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMA 281 Joint Mission Planning System and Tomahawk Command and Control;

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation.

OBJECTIVE: Develop innovative volumetric visualization technology using a real-time 3 dimensional (3D) display within a laptop environment using either holographic, pseudo-holographic or another emerging 3D techniques.

DESCRIPTION: There is increasing importance on the accuracy and timeliness of high-value weapons targeting and mission planning of all types. This is especially true in maritime as well as unconventional and urban warfare where the strike opportunity window is short and the target itself is mobile and/or partially shielded by sensitive civilian infrastructure. To maximize the effect of ground, sea, and air-forces while minimizing their exposure to hostile fire, commanders and planners need high-quality real-time volumetric visualization of the battlespace and the ability to view the battlespace from multiple concurrent perspectives. The ability to generate live 3D battle simulations using both live and synthetic source imagery will substantially improve the quality of computer augmented war gaming and training.

The visualization system must accept live or synthetic 2 dimensional (2D) and 3D image/data sources, such as video, stereoscopic video, Radar, Sonar, EO/IR and others and fuse it into a high-fidelity volumetric image. The displayed image must have sufficient fidelity and resolution to extract useful targeting data (latitude, longitude, and elevation) and supporting information and the ability to overlay/embed computer generated object images for mission planning, battle simulation, and training.

Current 3D visualization technologies do not allow extraction of geospatial data from the generated image. Within the augmented reality domain currently, available systems do not allow concurrent view of the same scene from multiple perspectives which limits utility for mission planning and war gaming. An additional limitation on current advanced visualization technologies is their demand for extremely high computational performance. A practical system must have a sufficiently small deployment footprint (size, power, support) and generate the volumetric display in real-time to enable it’s used with forward-deployed or expeditionary forces.

PHASE I: Determine the technical and operational feasibility of developing a deployable advanced 3D volumetric image information visualization display system that has sufficient capability, resolution, and accuracy to extract targeting information from the image and to allow its use for mission planning and augmented reality training. The system must have sufficient processor throughput performance to allow real-time image generation and display

PHASE II: Design, develop, and demonstrate a prototype system that: 1) accepts and fuses multi-sensor, multiphenomena live 2D image sources generating a real-time 3D volumetric image display; 2) integrates geospatial data into the generated 3D image; 3) integrating computer synthesized images (augmented reality) into the generated 3D image; and 4) allowing extraction of accurate geospatial data from the generated image. Evaluate the effectiveness, performance characteristics, and reliability of the prototype system and the overall approach.

PHASE III: Sufficiently mature the prototype capability for use in Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) mission planning and targeting, manned and unmanned air strike mission planning, ground force mission planning, and battle simulation and training.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL: Potential commercial and non-military applications include air traffic control, scientific visualization, medical training, remote surgery, telemedicine, high-end game consoles, teleconferencing, and video entertainment.

REFERENCES:
1. 3D Display Offers Glimpse of Future Media, November 2008; http://www.physorg.com/news145514544.html

2. http://library.wolfram.com/infocenter/Conferences/5399/

3. http://wordpress.com/tag/holographic-display/

4. Philips introducing 52-inch 1080p 3D display, June 2008; http://mobile.mit.edu/en/blog/wowvx-3D-display-philips

KEYWORDS: 3D imagery; information visualization; mission planning; battle simulation; battlespace; targeting

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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