Real-Time Reconnaissance Systems Simulator

A facility was developed for assessing operator performance in target detection, recognition, and identification against simulated real-time and near real-time electro-optical sensor imagery. The basic element in the facility is a programmable image scanner utilized to generate simulated sensor imagery from a variety of sensors and under a wide range of flight profiles. The facility was applied to the evaluation of candidate sensors for a new reconnaissance system. A two-factors, repeated measures design was used in comparing three types of sensor at each of two combinations of airspeed and altitude. Significant findings were developed for the dependent measures of: percent of targets detected, time on display until detection, ground range at detection, slant range at detection, and displayed image scale at detection. Accuracy of interpretation and interpreter confidence did not yield significant results. Additionally, the facility is being used in studying FLIR operator display requirements and several weapon delivery concepts.