Description: Image processing technology provides the opportunity to improve video quality beyond what can be done solely through the development of new sensors and optics. While such techniques have a long history, their deployment has been limited due to their lack of effectiveness in many real-world scenarios. EM Photonics has worked to overcome these limitations by focusing on addressing two critical challenges: improving severely degraded data and processing in real-time. As a result, we have built ATCOM, a streaming video enhancement platform capable of improving live and recorded videos. Much of this work was developed under NASA SBIR Phase 1 and Phase 2 projects and resulted in a video enhancement device being deployed at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC). This technology has since drawn interest from many other user communities. One such group is the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization (JIDO), which sees the potential for our image processing technology to help them detect concealed explosive devices. JIDO will serve as both investor and customer for this proposed CCRPP project. They will be providing funding to continue to advance the underlying technology and platform and serve as a transition partner once the work is complete. We have developed this proposal with feedback from NASA AFRC, JIDO, and others to determine what additions and enhancement would be most beneficial to potential users. The resulting software will be delivered to both of these sponsors and be available for transition to a much wider customer base as well.

Benefits: The primary NASA application for this technology is to support the Long-Range Optical (LRO) group at NASA AFRC. This group already has a streaming ATCOM appliance developed in our previous SBIR projects. Much of the work included in this proposal supports their needs and recommendations on how to improve workflow. In addition, ATCOM would be valuable to NASA for monitoring rocket launches, observing astronomical phenomenon, and Earth-based tracking of manmade objects in space.

ATCOM has already found customers in fields ranging from surveillance and security to test and measurement support. It has also been used for site safety, film production, and commercial space flight. The technology developed in this project will be transitioned to those same application areas.