Imaging Spectrometer for Defeating Camouflage

Camouflage is an effective technology used to conceal personnel and equipment by mimicking the visible colors of the background environment. This project presents a novel imaging spectrometer that exploits spatial-spectral information from visible to near-infrared wavelengths to discriminate between camouflage and the background it was designed to simulate.

The team designed an operational and calibrated imaging spectrometer to identify camouflaged personnel at distances of up to 500 yards. The operator uses a scanning system to sweep a narrow field of view across a scene. The system focuses the scanned scene onto an optical slit that is relayed and spectrally dispersed to a CMOS detector using an equilateral prism and spherical mirror. The system then combines multiple slit images into a three-dimensional hyper-spatial-spectral data cube, which it then processes to display a composite digital image and spectral graph on a graphical user interface (GUI). The system uses a clustering algorithm to discern pixels that deviate from the expected background spectra and visually flags those pixels as camouflage on the GUI, facilitating operator analysis and interaction. This project presents a unique system capable of detecting camouflaged objects and people.