To correctly model the target acquisition capability of an electro-optic system manned by a human, the basic process of how the human visual system interacts with the scene must be considered. The Center for Night Vision and Electro-Optics (CNVEO) model has analyzed the detection of targets both in the static situation and in the case of a person searching a field of regard. However, this model does not provide a quantitative measure of the clutter of a scene. In this paper, we propose two new metrics of clutter, derived from our understanding of the human visual system. The first is a metric based on the distinctness of the target in its surroundings, that can be used both locally for target contrast and globally for overall clutter. The second is a metric based on the calculation of likely fixation points of a human observer. We compare the results to an experiment performed at Hughes Corporation and described in our paper.

Date Published: 13 August 1993
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 1971, 8th Meeting on Optical Engineering in Israel: Optical Engineering and Remote Sensing, (13 August 1993); doi: 10.1117/12.151006

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1971:
8th Meeting on Optical Engineering in Israel: Optical Engineering and Remote Sensing