METHOD OF PREDICTING THE PROBABILITY OF HUMAN OBSERVERS RECOGNIZING TARGETS IN SIMULATED THERMAL IMAGES

A series of psychophysical trials is conducted to study the human perc eption of images of various shapes that are degraded by various combin ations of Gaussian blurring, sampling, and fixed pattern noise. These images were created using computer programs designed to simulate the t ypes of image degradation associated with thermal imagers that employ focal plane arrays (FPAs) of detectors. A total of 46 observers partic ipated in these trials, during which over 130,000 observations were re corded. The responses collected during the trials are used to develop an empirical model of human vision applicable to 2-D images having a g ray scale, but not including other colors. This model can be used to p redict the probability of a human observer correctly distinguishing be tween images of two different objects. (C) 1998 Society of Photo-Optic al instrumentation Engineers. [S0091-3286(98)00303-1].