CAMEO-SIM: a physics-based broadband scene simulation tool for assessment of camouflage, concealment, and deception methodologies

Assessment of camouflage, concealment, and deception (CCD) methodologies is not a trivial problem; conventionally the only method has been to carry ou t field trials, which are both expensive and subject to the vagaries of the weather. In recent years computing power has increased, such that there ar e now many research programs using synthetic environments for CCD assessmen ts. Such an approach is attractive; the user has complete control over the environment parameters and many more scenarios can be investigated. The UK Ministry of Defence is currently developing a synthetic scene generation to ol for assessing the effectiveness of air vehicle camouflage schemes. The s oftware is sufficiently flexible to allow it to be used in a broader range of applications, including full CCD assessment. The synthetic scene simulat ion system (CAMEO-SIM) has been developed, as an extensible system, to prov ide imagery within the 0.4 to 14 mum spectral band with as high a physical fidelity as possible. It consists of a scene design tool, an image generato r, that incorporates both radiosity and ray-tracing processes, and an exper imental trials tool. The scene design tool allows the user to develop a thr ee-dimensional representation of the scenario of interest from a fixed view point. Target(s) of interest can be placed anywhere within this 3-D represe ntation and may be either static or moving. Different illumination conditio ns and effects of the atmosphere can be modeled together with directional r eflectance effects. The user has complete control over the level of fidelit y of the final image. The output from the rendering tool is a sequence of r adiance maps, which may be used by sensor models or for experimental trials in which observers carry out target acquisition tasks. The software also m aintains an audit trail of all data selected to generate a particular image , both in terms of material properties used and the rendering options chose n. A range of verification tests has shown that the software computes the c orrect values for analytically tractable scenarios. Validation tests using simple scenes have also been undertaken. More complex validation tests usin g observer trials are planned. The current version of CAMEO-SIM and how its images are used for camouflage assessment is described. The verification a nd validation tests undertaken are discussed. In addition, example images w ill be used to demonstrate the significance of different effects, such as s pectral rendering and shadows. Planned developments of CAMEO-SIM are also o utlined. (C) 2001 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.