(Spectral) pattern recognition as a versatile tool towards automatic landmine detection: A new European approach

A mobile acousto‐optical sensor (Laser Vibrometer) is being used for the detection and discrimination of buried landmines. Analysis of measurement data, obtained in a number of field tests, reveals that buried mines (anti‐tank mines as well as anti personnel mines) can reliably be discriminated from nonlethal clutter objects, such as stones, wood, cans, etc. due to their individual shapes and spectral properties. Increasing operational demands on these acoustic soundings (speed, reliability, and spatial/spectral resolution) implies the introduction of new procedures and strategies to identify and suppress misleading features as well as improved correlation of useful data. These procedures will include improved techniques for real time: (a) processing of the spectrally resolved image of the soil surface as well as (b) spectral analysis of the on‐target soil vibrations. Image processing is comprising background linearization and suppression, shape recognition and gradient detection. Spectral analysis is inc...