SONAR
29x6 meter ship hull scanned by a DIDSON forward looking sonar. The sonar is manufactured by Soundmetrics and is mounted on an AUV manufactured by BlueFin Robotics.
The image is a mosaic of 700 frames.
AcousticView specializes in a variety of acoustic signal processing and imaging applications for sonar, done in the form of in house development and consulting. The technology was inspired by extensive studies on sonar mammals including dolphins, bats and mole rats. These mammals analyze each ping and fuse multiple ping information in a unique way tat leads to higher resolution and robustness to noise. The mosaicing image enhancement processing is done in real-time and opens a wide range of applications for surveying and continuous monitoring of underwater installations related to homeland security.
Homeland Security
Underwater intelligence capability is a key requirement of homeland security. While large and quick threats such as submarines and torpedoes have been addressed by advanced sonar and acoustic sensing technology, small threats such as divers are yet to be addressed. The enhanced sonar capabilities obtained by the SIEM product solution is a perfect solution for protecting key installations underwater, including harbor entrances, ship hulls, and more. The resolution achieved by the SIEM is key in making forward looking sonar a viable alternative to divers or video cameras, while the range and coverage of a forward looking sonar is much bigger, thus leading to a more affordable solution.
click here to go to homeland security images. These include mosaic patches of a ship hull indicating the different targets.
Oil industry
Underwater installations such as oil rigs require constant checkups and maintenance due to movements which cause cracks and sometimes leakage. The Sonar Image Enhancement and Mosaicing (SIEM) product, together with a forward looking sonar such as DIDSON, can provide an excellent solution for automatic exploration. It can be used in a ROV or UAV or using a permanently mounted (rotating) system looking at key areas of the installation. Subsea oil and gas engineering and service companies should find this product very useful in replacing divers, which sometimes risk their lives when exploring underwater installations under the rough sea.
Dam Exploration
According to Wikipedia, there are an estimated 75,000 dams in the US, blocking some 600,00 miles. Clearly these dams have to be maintained and analyzed for possible cracks. A high resultion forward looking sonar with the SIEM software would be able to cover a much larger area than a video camera, thus making the exploration process more cost effective.
Archaeology
High resolution sonar imagery can be very helpful in the discovery of underwater remains of shipwrecks as well as other archaeological remains. High sonar resolution can save a lot of search time as it would be possible to cover a larger area from a longer distance and still keep the required resolution to ensure detection of articles at a given size.
Underwater intelligence capability is a key requirement of homeland security. While large and quick threats such as submarines and torpedoes have been addressed by advanced sonar and acoustic sensing technology, small threats such as divers are yet to be addressed. The enhanced sonar capabilities obtained by the SIEM product solution is a perfect solution for protecting key installations underwater, including harbor entrances, ship hulls, and more. The resolution achieved by the SIEM is key in making forward looking sonar a viable alternative to divers or video cameras, while the range and coverage of a forward looking sonar is much bigger, thus leading to a more affordable solution.
click here to go to homeland security images. These include mosaic patches of a ship hull indicating the different targets.
Oil industry
Underwater installations such as oil rigs require constant checkups and maintenance due to movements which cause cracks and sometimes leakage. The Sonar Image Enhancement and Mosaicing (SIEM) product, together with a forward looking sonar such as DIDSON, can provide an excellent solution for automatic exploration. It can be used in a ROV or UAV or using a permanently mounted (rotating) system looking at key areas of the installation. Subsea oil and gas engineering and service companies should find this product very useful in replacing divers, which sometimes risk their lives when exploring underwater installations under the rough sea.
Dam Exploration
According to Wikipedia, there are an estimated 75,000 dams in the US, blocking some 600,00 miles. Clearly these dams have to be maintained and analyzed for possible cracks. A high resultion forward looking sonar with the SIEM software would be able to cover a much larger area than a video camera, thus making the exploration process more cost effective.
Archaeology
High resolution sonar imagery can be very helpful in the discovery of underwater remains of shipwrecks as well as other archaeological remains. High sonar resolution can save a lot of search time as it would be possible to cover a larger area from a longer distance and still keep the required resolution to ensure detection of articles at a given size.
Sonar Image Enhancement
The Sonar Image Enhancement and Mosaicing (SIEM) can provide spectacular image enhancement to forward looking and side scan sonar systems. It is based on detailed geometric modeling of the environment and utilization of the latest optimization techniques to create the most likely image, based on the collection of image frames.
provides sonar image enhancement and mosaicing to a DIDSON forward looking sonar system. It performs detailed geometric modeling of the collection of sonar frames. It then modifies the image following a shift of the camera to a common location and performs a global optimization on the mosaic created by the sequence of frames. Super resolution is obtained by the shift of the camera vs. the target by sub-pixel values . Such enhancement increases resolution up to 10 times, depending on the speed of camera movement.
Software Features:
Sonar Video Enhancement
A demonstration of the enhanced video: On the left is the original DIDSON frame. On the right is an enhanced frame using AcousticView technology.
Press here to see the Video Download the Video
The Sonar Image Enhancement and Mosaicing (SIEM) can provide spectacular image enhancement to forward looking and side scan sonar systems. It is based on detailed geometric modeling of the environment and utilization of the latest optimization techniques to create the most likely image, based on the collection of image frames.
provides sonar image enhancement and mosaicing to a DIDSON forward looking sonar system. It performs detailed geometric modeling of the collection of sonar frames. It then modifies the image following a shift of the camera to a common location and performs a global optimization on the mosaic created by the sequence of frames. Super resolution is obtained by the shift of the camera vs. the target by sub-pixel values . Such enhancement increases resolution up to 10 times, depending on the speed of camera movement.Software Features:
- Processing time: 3.5 frames/sec on an Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Processor
- Mosaic of up to 1000 frames depends on the level of free memory
- Grid is provided for location and size referencing
Sonar Video Enhancement
A demonstration of the enhanced video: On the left is the original DIDSON frame. On the right is an enhanced frame using AcousticView technology.
Press here to see the Video Download the Video