anbul 2004 
ported by 
Germany. 
sauken, NJ 
also to Dr. 
s in Saudi 
, Jacobsen, 
ation up to 
n Mapping 
y without 
ation IV / 
ion - RPC 
,on CD 
2° Sensor 
15 / Land 
2,on CD 
, EARSeL, 
iegration" 
ckBird and 
Transition, 
NOS- and 
tric Weeks 
397-X and 
of Digital 
ry, ISPRS 
eo images 
Resolution 
ember, on 
ANALYSIS OF USAGE OF MULTISPECTRAL VIDEO TECHNIQUE 
FOR DISTINGUISHING OBJECTS IN REAL TIME 
W. Debski*, P. Walezykowski*, A. Klewski*, M. Zyznowski® 
? Military University of Technology, 2 Kaliskiego Str., 00908 Warsaw, Poland (wdebski, pwalezykowski, aklewski)@wat.edu.pl 
^ Polish Air Force, 103 Zwirki i Wigury Str., 00912 Warsaw, Poland 
KEY WORDS: Environment, Identification, Multispectral, Real-time, CCD 
ABSTRACT: 
Multispectral video system developed by the Authors in real time is presented in the paper. The system enables to acquire precise 
information about the objects and theirs location, and when combined with a communication system it enables quick transmission of 
the information in the form of image, text description and navigational data to Ground Station. The quality of the imagery acquired 
by the system was assessed. Imagery resolution and luminance contrast were determined as the main factors determining the 
capability of objects distinguishing. Ground resolved distance (GRD) of the proposed system was investigated in laboratory and field 
conditions. Calibration targets were used. Interpretability of the images was determined based on the ground resolved distance. 
Additionally, a method of recording channel selection based on the analysis of spectral reflectivity characteristics of the objects and 
the background is presented. The method was verified practically during field experiments. The developed method of image 
acquisition by means of standard television video technique and creating multispectral compositions of them in real time may be 
widely applied to natural environment survey and natural disaster monitoring how also to military reconnaissance tasks realization 
(distinguishing camouflaged objects from natural background, own troops camouflage control) The developed system and the 
method of imagery recording may also be considered applicable in the processes of crops control for the IACS system. The prototype 
version of the system was successfully applied to flood monitoring in Poland. 
A CONCEPT OF A RECONNAISSANCE SYSTEM 
BASED ON THE MULTISPECTRAL VIDEO . 
TECHNIQUE 
Analysis of television standard video technique application to 
reconnaissance required construction. of a reconnaissance 
system and development of an imagery recording method. 
The aim of a multispectral system for distinguishing objects 
from natural background is provision of imagery data acquired 
in various defined spectra in a form enabling further processing. 
The imagery is provided by television cameras mounted 
together in a camera head. The cameras' optics is equipped with 
optical spectral filters which limits the observation region of a 
specific camera to an appointed spectral band. The cameras 
mounting in the head and their optical systems have to be 
selected in a way providing geometrically identical fields of 
view for each of them, i.e. the fields should have the same 
dimensions and cover the same area of observation. This 
requirement results from the need of superimposing of various 
spectral imageries of the same area for discrimination purposes 
(distinguishing) of objects having required spectral 
characteristics. 
The observations may be continuous while digital 
recording of the imageries may concern all cameras at the same 
time or only those from selected channels. 
The system comprises a camera head (one 3CCD 
camera and three monochromatic cameras) and a highly 
efficient computer workstation designed for imagery 
processing. 
To input the image from the television signal into the 
computer system, the image has to be converted from analog to 
digital form. The continuous image from the television camera 
has to be processed for discretization and quantization. This 
process is done in the image acquisition block which contains 
analog-digital converters. The system is equipped with 6 
A 
converters mounted on two special cards, 3 on each. This 
enables input of up to 6 imagery signals at the same time from 
selected spectral channels. 
Navigation 
System 
A/D HDD 
Block matrix 
Band 1 
A/D 
Band © 
A/D 
R1 3 a ROGO & 
Central 
Another 1 . 
range T Unit 
Camera head 
multi- 
spectral 
compos. 
Monitor 
Fig. 1. System diagram. 
Images from different bands may be shifted vertically or 
horizontally during acquisition which enables correction. of 
relative location of the images in the field of view. 
The current imagery data from the cameras may be monitored 
on the system screen. Images from the specific channels may be 
displayed in the monochromatic form and images composed of 
two bands may be displayed in color. The displayed images 
create a mosaic of up to eight images on the system monitor. 
The images may be zoomed in or out in a wide range and