Parallax Visualization of UAV FMV and WAMI Imagery

The US Military is increasingly relying on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Complex arrays of Full-Motion Video (FMV), Wide-Area Motion Imaging (WAMI) and Wide Area Airborne Surveillance (WAAS) technologies are being deployed on UAV platforms for ISR applications. Nevertheless, these systems are only as effective as the Image Analyst's (IA) ability to extract relevant information from the data. A variety of tools assist in the analysis of imagery captured with UAV sensors. However, until now, none has been developed to extract and visualize parallax three-dimensional information.(1) Parallax Visualization (PV) is a technique that produces a near-three-dimensional visual response to standard UAV imagery. The overlapping nature of UAV imagery lends itself to parallax visualization. Parallax differences can be obtained by selecting frames that differ in time and, therefore, points of view of the area of interest. PV is accomplished using software tools to critically align a common point in two views while alternately displaying both views in a square-wave manner. Humans produce an autostereoscopic response to critically aligned parallax information presented alternately on a standard unaided display at frequencies between 3 and 6 Hz.(2) This simple technique allows for the exploitation of spatial and temporal differences in image sequences to enhance depth, size, and spatial relationships of objects in areas of interest. PV of UAV imagery has been successfully performed in several US Military exercises over the last two years.(3)