Interrogation as a targeting task

Traditional targeting tasks consist of detection, recognition, and identification (DRI). Increasingly, sensing systems are being asked to go beyond these traditional categories for the purpose of distinguishing targets from decoys. The difficulty of this task is dependent both on the sensing system used and the fidelity of the decoy. In this paper we examine how the task of distinguishing target from decoy with imaging sensors fits within the traditional task difficulty description in models such as the Night Vision Integrated Performance Model (NVIPM). We discuss the types of decoys an imaging sensor might encounter. We introduce the idea of interrogation as a task. Using NVIPM and the tracked vehicle target identification task as a baseline, we examine the space of task difficulty for possible insights into the task difficulty of interrogation for imaging sensors. Examining several sensors spanning visible through thermal infrared, we calculate the performance as a function of task difficulty. From this, we discuss the implications and possible limitations of using imaging sensors for interrogation.