Optical Pattern Recognition for Missile Guidance.

Research on optical pattern recognition OPR for missile guidance has addressed three general areas new OPR techniques, OPR experiments on specific missile guidance problems and scenarios, and component evaluation and testing. In the area of component evaluation and testing, research has been concentrated on 2-D spatial light modulators SLM with specific attention to the photo-DKDP, prom, and the liquid crystal light valve and to a general test and evaluation procedure for these devices. A general SLM test and evaluation procedure has been developed. In the area of new OPR techniques, a coherence measure correlator, an equalization correlator, moment invariant hybrid correlator and an averaged filter correlator have been developed. Specific missile guidance scenarios persued were OPR of multi-sensor and infrared imagery. The former has laid initial ground work for a future program in optical statistical and deterministic pattern recognition. The latter has initiated a generalized approach to OPR using hyperspace formulations and linear combinations of orthonormal basis functions.