Improved image quality metric for predicting tactical vehicle identification

Three perception experiments were conducted to quantify the relationship between tactical military vehicle identification (ID) performance when using an imager and the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) and noise characteristics of that imager. The results of these experiments show that the limiting resolution metric provides a reasonably accurate prediction of target ID performance. For example, limiting resolution is a better predictor of performance than Modulation Transfer Function Area or Integrated Contrast Sensitivity. However, a metric consisting of integrating the square root of the product of Contrast Sensitivity and spatial frequency provides a better fit to data than limiting resolution. This paper describes the perception experiments and test results. The predictive capability of a selected group of image quality metrics is evaluated. This paper also discusses possible improvements to target acquisition performance models.