Dual-frequency microwave-enhanced infrared thermography

Humanitarian landmine detection and clearance is one of the most challenging, difficult and time-consuming tasks to be completed with existing technologies. Infrared (IR) Imagery has been used to find differences in heat transfer on the surface of the soil due to a buried object. In this paper, we will describe a method, Dual Frequency Microwave Enhanced Infrared Thermography (MEIT). Heating with microwaves instead of natural sunlight leads to a number of advantages, such as more efficient heating to enhance the thermal signature, and the ability to sense electromagnetic as well as thermal properties of the buried object. However, like other IR techniques, it is limited by surface roughness. Thus, the two frequency technique is used to minimize the clutter introduced by the rough, irregular surface of the ground itself, and vegetation covering the ground. The dependence of scattered waves on frequency is weak enough to makes this possible. A 2-D computational model of this method has been developed to simulate real-world landmine detection. Moreover, ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curves are used to evaluate the performance of the system applying this method.