Summary:
U.S. soldiers routinely perform military patrols, clear strategic areas, and conduct sensitive site exploitation in and around unsecured structures. During these operations, troops are vulnerable to ambushes and hidden booby traps. The ability to discretely detect these threats enables our forces to neutralize them on favorable terms and conduct operations at will.
In an efort to aid this issue, researchers and engineers in APL's Asymmetric Operations Sector are developing standoff centimeter-wave holographic imaging (C-WHIM) technology for producing live 3-D images of threat objects hidden by opaque barriers.
WHAT IS C-WHIM?
C-WHIM is a prototype radio-frequency (RF) imaging system that presents operators with a live, intuitively understandable picture of hidden metal objects such as firearms, improvised explosive devices, suicide vests, and other threats.
WHAT DOES IT DO?
C-WHIM imaging creates 3-D spatially resolved maps of the electric field throughout large volumes of interest (length scales of meters to tens of meters) to visualize and locate objects that strongly scatter electromagnetic (EM) energy. We image the scene using EM waves with frequencies and power levels similar to normal Wi-Fi devices. These waves easily penetrate common building materials, thick clothing, vegetation, and dense haze and dust, and provide spatial resolution on the order of a few centimeters. This technology is unique in its ability to produce live 3-D images of threat objects, penetrate thick opaque barriers, and operate in large unstructured environments using harmless low-power non-ionizing radiation.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Transmitter antennas illuminate the scene with harmless low-power energy (100 mW at 3 - 6 GHz), and an array of receiver antennas measures the EM waves that scatter from nearby objects. These measurements are combined with computational holographic techniques to reconstruct the electric field throughout the scene. Regions of highly concentrated EM energy indicate the presence of strongly scattering objects such as metals. Our prototype system scans the scene multiple times per second and displays live, intuitively understandable 3-D images that can be adapted for a wide range of visualization platforms.
WHERE AND HOW CAN THIS TECHNOLOGY BE USED?
Concepts of operation include rapidly screening crowds at checkpoints, detecting booby traps prior to entering buildings, and detecting improvised explosive devices around/ahead of convoys or forward-patrol elements.
NEXT STEPS AND FUTURE GOALS
The next steps for the project are to develop new system configurations that enable future concepts of operation. These include a portable, reconfigurable collection of antennas that could be quickly deployed to surveil areas of interest and a wireless swarm of antennas that could scan ahead of convoys (airborne, drone-mounted) or around groups of soldiers (body-worn).
Inventors:
Christina Selby, Matthew Giarra, Wayne Shanks
Related Patent: https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/11372126
