In the Palm of Your Hand
Written by Peter Buxbaum
TISR 2011 Volume: 1 Issue: 3 (September)
ISR platforms are often thought of as sophisticated and expensive systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles that feed information to command headquarters and outposts. However, there is an increasing trend toward providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data to individual dismounted units and, often, to individual warfighters.
The ability to provide real-time tactical information to the most forward deployed troops is being facilitated by a growing number of portable—and in some cases handheld—devices that allow warfighters to gather and view ISR data. Also supporting the trend are systems that allow ISR data to be transmitted to devices, such as smartphones, in the hands of warfighters.
Perhaps the classic example of a specialized, soldier-centric ISR capability involves night vision technology. Night vision encompasses two capabilities and technologies. Electro-optical cameras—the same kind used in commercial photography—utilizing image intensification technology allow warfighters to discern threats in low-light situations. Infrared cameras display images without the aid of any light at all; they pick up the heat profile emitted from the objects being viewed. The purpose of both of these capabilities is to be able to find potential threats, identify them and provide information for follow-up action.
Most night vision devices incorporated into soldier systems today are image intensifying technologies that must use some light source. However, thermal technologies are progressing to the point where they too can be incorporated into equipment toted by individual warfighters. Today’s enhanced night vision goggles used by the U.S. Army fuse data from both kinds of sensors.
Other man-portable ISR devices include digital cameras which automatically incorporate GPS and other data for downloading into mapping systems; systems that provide users with an immersive picture of the environment or which allow access to multiple views simultaneously; and those that allow operators to see behind obstructions in tactical and close-in operations.
ITT’s night vision system products are built around image intensification (i2) technology. “The products take ambient light and magnify and amplify it to enhance the night scene,” said Harry Buchanan, the company’s U.S. military marketing manager. “This supports ISR because it enables people to do their jobs under the cover of darkness.”
Thermal detection technology might be best for detection of an object, said Buchanan, but image intensification is better for classification, identification and recognition of targets. Thermal products are normally heavier and more power hungry than image intensification devices, but that trend may be reversing itself with the development of smaller and less expensive thermal devices.
ITT produces some of the most common night vision goggles used by the U.S. military, based on i2 technology, and won a contract to produce the Army’s enhanced night vision devices, which include both types of sensors and display an image that fuses the output of each.
Buchanan expects future developments in night vision goggles to include higher levels of image resolution and increases in the user’s field of view. He also foresees the development of fully digital systems. Current i2 technology is a purely optical, analog technology.
DRS produces handheld long wave infrared thermal detection devices that enable users to detect objects at a distance of as much as 1,100 meters. The company also produces a smaller, less expensive product with half that range, which is suitable for close-in and urban operations.
Although normally thought of as night vision technology, thermal detection also has its uses for daytime operations, noted Bob Guarasi, the company’s vice president for reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition business development.
“The advantage of long wave infrared technology is that you are able to detect images through adverse conditions such as fog, smoke, camouflage and dirt,” he said. “When dust gets kicked up on the battlefield, long wave IR is an excellent choice.” DRS’s MX3a and MX2a devices are both currently used with the U.S. military.
“One of the key advantages of these products is that they are multifunctional,” said Guarasi. “They can be handheld, mounted on a tripod and have been validated for use on certain systems as weapons sights.”
The systems also have video out capabilities. The displays can be removed from the body of the device so that images can be viewed remotely.
Thermal Matrix takes heat detection to another level by enhancing infrared images to identify objects being viewed. The system uses a forward looking infrared (FLIR) sensor as its base and adds technology that enhances the detection capability normally expected from IR.
“Our software includes a proprietary algorithm that analyzes the data coming out of the IR sensor and picks people out in the scene,” said Chris Jadick, the company’s vice president of communications. “Once a person is found, the system can draw a box around his torso or full length and then apply further scanning to that.”
The purpose at that point is to identify concealed objects on the person, which could be a tip-off that he is a suicide bomber. “Explosives emit a much cooler heat signature,” said Jadick. “Our system will light up the screen if that is found.”
The Thermal Matrix system provides stand-off detection from 100 meters or more of potential approaching danger. “A suicide bomber can be picked up long before he gets to the area where he intends to do damage,” said Jadick. The military deployment of the Thermal Matrix system is classified.
A warfighter taking pictures of an area with a digital camera would normally have to keep separate notes on the location, heading and time of the shot. That presents obvious problems of user error, head down time for the warfighter, as well as the possibility that the photograph could be separated from this essential data. But a camera originally developed by Ricoh, and now marketed by Geo Tactical Solutions, captures all of this data and more with a single click of the shutter.
“Each time the operator clicks the shutter button, the camera collects many pieces of data,” said Andy Shannon, the company’s business development director. This data includes GPS coordinates, heading and time, as well as mission specific notes that can be embedded inside the photograph. The cameras can be equipped with a laser rangefinder that is used, together with Geo Tactical Solutions onboard proprietary firmware, to calculate the position of objects being photographed.
“The purpose of collecting this data is to answer the five Ws for an analyst: who, what, where, when and why,” said Shannon.
This information is normally transferred to an intelligence shop, where it is used by analysts and subsequently by decision-makers to develop better situational awareness and informed decisions. The photograph and its metadata can be automatically uploaded to mapping systems such as ArcGIS or Google Earth.
Geo Tactical Solutions recently introduced a new product, a module which attaches to any digital camera that can accommodate an SDHC card. The module captures the same data and provides the same functionality as the original Ricoh camera.
Automated Visual Protection Corp. has developed a surveillance camera designed for rapid deployment. “It was specifically engineered with no wires to connect,” said Micah Buse, the company’s president. “Especially in cases of emergency management, the camera can be deployed without wireless connections to power or communications infrastructures. It allows surveillance to be quickly established when the existing infrastructure has been taken down. The images can be transmitted back to a command vehicle or back to headquarters over a cellular network.”
AVP shipped a quantity of these cameras to a U.N. military facility in Italy two years ago. Buse believes these units could have been used in theater to establish perimeter security at forward bases and to protect convoys. The cameras were equipped with radios that allowed them to establish mesh networks so that data and images could be routed through any of them.
The cameras are able to transmit over a variety of networks, such as Wi-Fi and cellular networks. “The customer lets us know what communications infrastructure they have and we customize the cameras for those systems,” said Buse.
The company also provides a hosting platform for the cameras, which allows a multi-camera surveillance system to be established utilizing cloud technology. “The cloud-based platform is collocated with data centers all over the country,” said Buse. “If a data center is lost in one part of the country, the surveillance can be routed through another. Customers don’t have to purchase or install equipment and they don’t have to manage or maintain it.”
The future of surveillance includes cloud technology, according to Buse. “It allows a user to plug into the Internet, log into an account, and have stream of surveillance that is not cost prohibitive,” he said.
IMove makes immersive video solutions that capture a 360-degree view of an environment. The company’s Geoview 3000 can be handheld or mounted on a vehicle to provide a “Google Earth street view on steroids,” said John Herring, the company’s CEO. “You can also use it to walk through buildings and record everything.”
The output of the sensors can be accessed wirelessly so that users can view the imagery on smartphones. “The imagery is used for creating situational awareness,” said Herring, “for real-time and postmission analysis iMove’s system fuses the output of multiple cameras to provide users with an immersive image environment. “Those images with overlapping fields of view are collected and stitched together with software,” said Herring. “The system can use electro-optical, infrared, analog and Internet protocol.”
The cameras also store relevant metadata such as GPS coordinates, time and date, promoting interoperability with different analytic and exploitation systems. The iMove software can reside on any Windows platform including desktops, laptops and handheld devices.
Herring sees increasing interest among the military for 360-degree panoramic views with the requirement popping up in requests for information and proposals. “Three values are breaking open this field,” he said, “advancements in the hardware platform, the fact that this is now available in real time, and that it is made interoperable with metadata so it can be distributed and made available to everybody.”
L-3 Interstate Electronics Corporation (IEC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of L-3 Communications, recently introduced a product that is also designed to get ISR information to the individual warfighter. Its VideoScout app is a software application designed to run on commercial handheld smartphones and tablets powered by Google’s Android operating system. The application enables users to receive and display full motion video and metadata utilizing local area network connections and shared intelligence resources, including other VideoScout devices, remote sensors, network-centric collaboration servers and intelligence collection nodes.
L-3’s VideoScout product line is a computer-based full motion video and intelligence management and collection system currently supporting troops in-theater.
“The VideoScout app allows operators on the ground and command center people in charge of orchestrating what is going on to view the same scene simultaneously,” said Nicholas Ortyl, IEC’s vice president and general manager for situational awareness. For example, a team on the ground charged with extracting a warfighter can view the same picture generated by an airborne asset as personnel back at headquarters. “Before they would have to use voice communications to direct the team to the spot,” said Ortyl. “Small teams of soldiers can also share with each other what they are seeing.”
The VideoScout app includes intelligence tools, such as moving maps supported by geo-referenced metadata. It allows access to data networking via private and commercial cellular, Wi-Fi and mesh networks, while providing information security using AES software encryption. In addition, the VideoScout app allows two-way data transmission between field users and command centers. Users can both send and receive data and transmit still images, audio clips and notations from the user’s location. The app also supports DoD collection tools, such as the Tactical Ground Reporting System (TIGR) database.
The VideoScout line has been around for years with thousands of installations in command centers and in man-portable systems. “The interest in an Android app comes for several reasons,” said Ortyl. “Affordability is one. Another is the ability to provide every soldier the ability to visualize what is going on on the battlefield.”
The Android app is currently being tested by the U.S military. Ortyl predicts the testing will be finished by October and that it could be deployed by the beginning of next year.
Camero Tech Ltd., an Israeli company, markets a product that allows warfighters to envision the positions of people and objects located behind solid walls. The company’s Xaver 800 product is touted as a portable ISR platform.
The product uses micro-power pulse radar technology to penetrate walls and has a range of 20 meters. “That means that even with a stand-off of 10 meters, you can still get a picture of what is 10 meters behind the wall,” said Josh Levontin, the company’s director of business development.
The reflected radar waves build two separate views of the space on the device’s display screen. One is a bird’s eye view, which appears much like an architect’s blueprint and identifies the location of people and objects. The second side view shows where and how living objects are moving in the space behind the wall.
The 35-pound Xaver 800, which was first introduced in 2006, was joined in 2008 by the Xaver 400, a smaller and lighter device. “The Xaver 800 provides full ISR capabilities, recording the changing orientation of the room” said Levontin. “The Xaver 400 is designed to provide a quick tactical view.”
Camero Tech has sold the Xaver 800 and the Xaver 400 in over 20 countries around the world, primarily to elite early adopters such as U.S. Army special forces.
Camero Tech will soon be launching the handheld Xaver 100, which will “provide a detection capability to support a go or no-go decision,” said Levontin. ♦