Image Quality and Target Recognition

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Abstract
The terminology and literature in the area of image quality and target recognition are reviewed. An experiment in which subjects recognized strategic and tactical targets in aerial photographs with controlled image degradations is described. Some findings are: Recognition performance is only moderate for representative conditions. There are wide differences among target types in the recognizability. Knowledge of a target's presence (briefing) greatly aids recognition. Better resolution means better performance. Enlarging the image such that a line of resolution subtends more than three minutes of arc hinders recognition. Grain size should be kept below 20 seconds of arc. It is suggested that the eventual application of the modulation transfer function approach to measurement of image quality and target characteristics will enable a quantitative subsuming of various quality-size relationships. More attention needs to be paid in recognition research to suitable task definition, target description, and subject selection.

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