The "all-seeing" eyes of the world's most advanced military forces really aren't that all-seeing. Even with the rapid advancements in drones, radars, infrared and electro-optical sensors and "change-detecting" computer algorithms, it's still possible to hide, using tried-and-true methods. In tropical regions, hiding under jungle canopies is still a great way to avoid being seen. Two years ago, the American Association for the Advancement of Science tried to use satellites to track human-rights abuses in Burma, but dense tree cover made it necessary to send in human spotters to verify what the satellites appeared to see.
The U.S. military is developing pricey "penetrating" radars that might be able to peer through tree cover. But one tiny San Diego-based company thinks they can do it, for cheap. Advanced Coherent Technologies, founded in 2005, is developing a sensor system that uses multiple cameras, each tuned to different wavelengths, to view the same spot. The so-called "Multi-Spectral Imaging" system is meant for spotting submerged whales from an orbiting Navy drone, in order to make sure no marine animals are present when ships and submarines conduct potentially harmful sonar training. But it can also be used for finding "a terrorist camp hidden in the interior of a jungle," according to the company's website.
It works like this: two or more cameras, mounted together (pictured), send back a different image of the same submerged or overgrown location. "The two spectral bands are chosen to correlate background clutter while de-correlating sub-surface targets ... thus allowing to sea [or jungle --ed.] surface clutter to be subtracted," according to ACT's Yuliya Podobna and Jon Schoonmaker, writing in Unmanned Systems. In other words, layer a bunch of images, and remove everything that isn't shaped vaguely like a whale, or a terrorist camp. What emerges should be a fairly accurate picture of the concealed target.
This "multi-spectral" approach isn't new. What's new is ACT's ability to keep the sensor small enough, and cheap enough, to be practical. The company is coy about precisely how they do this, but Podobna and Schoonmaker stressed recent "broad-based technological advances in computing and telecommunications, combined with some creativity." ACT said it would be testing its multi-spectral cameras on a drone, starting this month.
[PHOTO: ACT]
See Also:
