Use of a vision model to quantify the significance of factors effecting target conspicuity

Gilmore, M. A. and Jones, C. K. and Haynes, A. W. and Tolhurst, D. J. and To, M. and Troscianko, T. and Lovell, P. G. and Parraga, C. A. and Pickavance, K. (2006) Use of a vision model to quantify the significance of factors effecting target conspicuity. In: Targets and Backgrounds XII : Characterization and Representation. UNSPECIFIED, USA. ISBN 0819462950

Abstract

When designing camouflage it is important to understand how the human visual system processes the information to discriminate the target from the background scene. A vision model has been developed to compare two images and detect differences in local contrast in each spatial frequency channel. Observer experiments are being undertaken to validate this vision model so that the model can be used to quantify the relative significance of different factors affecting target conspicuity. Synthetic imagery can be used to design improved camouflage systems. The vision model is being used to compare different synthetic images to understand what features in the image are important to reproduce accurately and to identify the optimum way to render synthetic imagery for camouflage effectiveness assessment. This paper will describe the vision model and summarise the results obtained from the initial validation tests. The paper will also show how the model is being used to compare different synthetic images and discuss future work plans.