Patent Application
20210148676
N/A
N/A
The present invention relates to camouflaging techniques for hiding assets vulnerable to aerial attack as well as deceptive techniques for creating thermal and visual decoys.
A major topic of discussion within the military community has been focused on what the next war of the future will be like and how to prepare for it. At the present, these concerns frequently end up centering on the threats posed by drones. Recent progress in the field of artificial intelligence and aeronautics has allowed for the possibility of attacks being initiated by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) controlled by humans or machine learning algorithms. These machines commonly use visual light cameras during the daytime and thermographic cameras during the night to identify targets and attack them from the sky. The question is, How do you protect from this? One possibility is to trick the drones into attacking the wrong target. Alternatively, the target can be camouflaged to hide from the drone. In either case, visual and thermal signatures must be faked in an extremely convincing way.
Currently, image recognition algorithms can be designed to identify targets nearly as well as humans can if not better. Therefore, to fool these systems, a very high degree of photographic realism is paramount. Achievement of this objective can result in drones being made to attack decoy targets, thus wasting munitions, or to overlook existing military targets due to appearing as an innocuous object.
For the achievement of this goal, the deception mechanism would require the ability to protect in daytime and nighttime conditions. Nighttime deception will require the use of a method to mimic thermal signatures. Although many rudimentary techniques have been employed in the past for daytime visual deception (mimesis, disruptive coloration, dazzle camouflage, etc.), there are few techniques designed specifically for nighttime deception. Deceptive methods used in daytime conditions are very well-known but still to this day extremely simplistic. In practice, these methods can be classified into two primary forms, partial camouflage and complete camouflage. Partial camouflage involves the use of incomplete mimicking of the surroundings or a form of optical illusion in which defects in a visual system are exploited. In both instances of partial camouflage, discernable features of the underlying object remain. A common example would be the camouflage produced by an octopus, which modifies its coloration and texture but maintains its overall shape which can indicate its presence. This technique has problems since if any identifiable feature of the original target remains, in theory, it should be possible to still recognize it. The only technique that can be completely entrusted to fully conceal an object and be fully impervious to subversion is complete camouflage. This would occur when the target is completely masked so that no identifiable feature of the underlying target is visible. Although this technique protects the identity of the target, it can potentially be distinguished as a ruse in and of itself by visual incongruencies it may introduce between the mask and the environment. This patent will prescribe a method for overcoming these problems.
In this patent, a method and system for achieving complete camouflage in daytime and nighttime conditions will be outlined. For the techniques to be described, the nighttime protection method will be referred to as “Metal Image Lithophane Printing” (MILP), after the conventional use of the word lithophane, meaning a patterned thin piece of translucent porcelain used to form an image when backlit. This method can be combined with a daytime fooling technique, that will be referred to as “Alpha Composite Masking” (ACM), which complements and enhances the overall nighttime deception method.
The technical problem addressed by this patent is that advances in UAVs, machine image recognition, and aerial inspection at high resolutions have rendered existing camouflage techniques ineffective. The present invention is designed to thwart these deficiencies by addressing three fundamental questions: How do you protect against daytime and nighttime identification? How do you achieve complete camouflage without exposing the presence of a mask's edge? How do you solve a shadowing problem created by the presence of a concealing mask? The present invention employs the use of camouflage to conceal and optionally decoy images to deceive.
In this patent, several methods and systems for creating images used to deceive thermographic cameras in daytime or nighttime conditions are described. Additionally, this patent makes claim to several methods and systems for deceiving cameras that operate in the visual spectrum (conventional cameras), the infrared spectrum (thermographic cameras), or those that employ full-spectrum photography. The latter methods can be used in conjunction with the thermographic fooling techniques to improve the performance.
Images that can fool thermographic cameras will be achieved by using a printer that can print in both standard color ink and metallic ink. These printers will be used to print an image of a military decoy, military target, or an innocuous object onto a flexible transparent plastic film. Attached to the backside of the plastic film is a uniform thermal emitter. In analogy to translucent porcelain lithophanes, the infrared light transmitted by the thermal emitter is selectively blocked by the metal ink above. Since the metal ink is printed in the design of an aerial view of an object, areas with a more concentrated coating of the metal ink will block more of the infrared radiation whereas areas of the film with a less densely concentrated metal ink coating will allow for more of the infrared radiation to be transmitted. Optionally, an additional layer between the uniform thermal emitter and the plastic film with the metallic object printed on it may be added that has a low thermal conductivity to mitigate heat transfer between the two layers. In this arrangement, a thermal image is generated by using the metal ink to selectively block the infrared radiation that it is backlit with. As a result, highly dense metallic regions correspond to cold regions on the decoy object and low-density metallic regions correspond to hot regions on the decoy object. Throughout this patent, the term metallic ink refers to an ink composed of metallic particles embedded within a paste or liquid. However, it may also refer to a non-metallic ink that strongly absorbs or reflects infrared radiation.
Alternatively, a second method is described in which the thermal images are generated by using an ink with high emissivity to produce its own infrared radiation. In this arrangement, a uniform thermal emitter is affixed to the flexible plastic film with the image printed on it with the prescribed ink except that the high emissivity ink is made to be in good thermal contact with the uniform thermal source below. In this fashion, the temperature of the high emissivity ink regions will increase above the temperature of the environment, and they will preferentially emit infrared radiation of their own. Regions with more of the ink will emit more infrared radiation appearing hotter, and regions with less high emissivity ink will emit less infrared radiation and will appear colder. Unlike the first method and system just described, this method and system does not rely on blocking the transmitted thermal radiation generated from below to form the image but instead relies on thermal conduction and radiated emission by the high emissivity ink layer. Due to the frequency dependence of the emissivity factor, ink selection will depend on the spectra typically emitted by the decoys involved.
Both of these methods and systems utilize a printer that can print in a variety of inks onto flexible transparent plastic film. Either metallic ink or high emissivity ink can be printed solely, or metallic ink and standard colored ink or high emissivity ink and standard colored ink can be printed in unison on the same transparent film. The dual printing of the two inks can be used to generate both images to fool a thermographic camera and a standard visual spectrum-based camera or a full-spectrum-based camera at the same time. This patent describes several methods for performing this inking arrangement. In one of the methods, a layer of metallic or high emissivity ink is deposited upon which a layer of standard colored ink is deposited on top. The thickness of the underlying metallic or high emissivity ink is varied with location to generate the infrared image. In another of the methods, the metallic ink and standard ink or the high emissivity ink and standard ink are deposited in the form of dots arranged in a horizontal configuration. In this fashion, varying the dots per inch of metallic or high emissivity ink controls the thermal variations that appear in the formed infrared image. In yet another method, two layers are printed in a similar fashion to the first method just described, except that the first layer instead uses a dot arrangement of metallic or high emissivity ink and one of the colors of the standard ink. In this fashion, the first layer varies the metal or high emissivity ink density by a technique similar to the second method described above, but the visual spectrum image is created by the purely standard colored ink layer that is deposited on top of this first layer.
In addition, this patent describes a method and system for assembling the plastic film. The thermal emitter can be powered by a camouflaged or non-camouflaged solar panel, battery, and power controller. Alternatively, mains electricity may be used. The film can be laid flat and held taught on the ground, draped around a target to form a three-dimensional effect, or can be held taught with transparent poles as a canopy above a target that the deployer wishes to conceal. In these arrangements, the image printed on the plastic film can be that of a decoy and/or that of the environment to camouflage the image below it so as to appear that no target is present. To create large-sized thermal and visual deception, multiple film sections can be spliced together for large-scale deception such as by providing the ability to fake the presence of a building when no building is present or hiding a building by draping it with the camouflaging film.
In this patent, a method and system for blending the images into the ground environment below the flexible transparent film is presented. A fully opaque photographic quality aerial image of a decoy can be printed on the transparent film. Surrounding the decoy can be printed a representative aerial view photographic image of the environment that gradually increases in transparency to blend into the ground below it. This is the solution to the edge visibility problem generated by complete camouflage described in this patent. Using this technique, the incongruent edges of the mask image with the ground can be seamlessly blended into one another. This method and system described in this patent is designed to fix this edge visibility problem so as to still allow for the advantages of complete camouflage.
This method is achieved through the following steps. First, a high-resolution photograph, either thermal or visual, is acquired that contains some of the representative background that the target would be found on. Next, the edge of the environment area of the image is irregularly cut. Next, the edges are made increasingly transparent towards the edges using a Gaussian functional form. Next, the apparent brightness of the edges is increased using a Gaussian profile. Finally, when the image is superimposed on top of a target stationed on a similar environment it will blend into the ground below it. The steps are designed to eliminate a shadowing problem that occurs at mask's edges in cases when the film is arranged as a canopy above an object. This modification is designed to compensate for the shadow that is cast by the mask. Alternatively, no environment background image can be included in the printed film such that the clear region of the film abuts the printed fully opaque decoy image. However, this comes at the price of creating shadows at the boundary of the opaque and transparent region of the film. Also, it limits the size of decoys that can be used to shield the given target. For example, a tank image can't be used to hide a large building since it would be too small to cover the area to be hidden. Increasing the size of the tank image would result in an unrealistically large decoy that could be identified based on this anomalous feature alone. The ACM technique, in contrast, allows for the inclusion of large segments of environmental background which can be used to shield large objects.
Lastly, this patent describes a method and system that involves an underlying and varying lighting system that can be used to mimic moving seawater when these methods and systems are used in a canopy arrangement to protect a watercraft. In this system, a canopy above a watercraft with a photographic image of the water is printed on a transparent plastic film. The water image is made to be semi-transparent throughout. The film is made to overhang the watercraft with transparent poles that it is affixed to at each corner. Below the film, a moving and/or varying light source and/or projector light source that is used to shine a light from below at the underside of the film. From above, the image generated will contain the light variations and motion effects that can be used to simulate the effects of moving waves, thus hiding the watercraft.
The technical question addressed in this patent is, How do you cause humans and machine learning-based algorithms to misidentify objects on the ground as seen from an aerial view? This requires producing a highly realistic photographic quality mask that can emit both infrared and visible light. In addition, the mask must be able to blend into the landscape without indicating its edge or indicating its shadow. This invention presents a solution to this problem in the form of a multi-layered film with fully opaque and semi-transparent regions.
Another embodiment has the intermediate layer 14 as having a high thermal conductivity. In this embodiment, a high emissivity ink image layer 12 has either a positive or negative image of the decoy. The bottom layer thermal emitter 16 heats the high emissivity ink portion of the image layer 12 by the conductive transmission of the heat through the intermediate layer 14. In this embodiment, the high emissivity ink portion of the image layer 12 heats up to emit its own thermal radiation. In the thermal image formed, cold regions correspond with regions with low concentrations of the high emissivity ink and hot regions correspond with regions of high concentration of the high emissivity ink. In this embodiment, concentration refers to the number of dots per inch of high emissivity ink printed within a given region. Preferably, the intermediate layer 14 also blocks infrared radiation emitted by layer 16. In the case when a negative image is used on layer 12 it behaves like a photographic negative.
The metallic or high emissivity ink decoy image has a variable concentration or thickness. The variable concentration or thickness of the metallic or high emissivity ink decoy image allows for the formation of a deceptive thermal image either as the inks selectively block the infrared radiation or as they selectively produce their own thermal radiation.
The image layer 12 also has a color ink image for deception in the visible spectrum in addition to the thermal deception created by the metallic or high emissivity ink. The term ink as applied to both color, metal, and high emissivity is meant to include any type of ink, formation, or deposition method onto the film layer. The image can be printed, sprayed, or otherwise deposited on the transparent image surface 12.
When a multilayer film 10 is laid atop the ground or suspended as a canopy, its presence can be identified by incongruencies between its edge and the environment below it. The solution to the edge problem is to prevent the identification of the presence of a film that might be apparent to the human eye or an edge detection computer algorithm. Detection of such a dissimilarity would identify the image as a ruse. Edge detection algorithms employ different mathematical techniques for identifying sudden changes in an image's brightness. In doing so, they are able to establish the locations of objects in a given image and to simplify the features of the image for subsequent classification by a machine learning algorithm.
To defeat edge detecting algorithms, this patent describes a technique that modifies the transparency and lightness of the printed image towards the edge. This technique uses a rectangle or a convex shape and a modification of the transparency of the image adjacent to the specified shape's edges. In this embodiment, the plastic film that the images are printed on is transparent to visible and infrared light. The convex shape can consist of linear line segments or be composed entirely of a smooth curve.
When viewed from above, the target 205 will be hidden from view and the presence of the mask's edge hidden as well. In
In a canopy arrangement, the films can be used to cover targets below it, thus providing protection to them. Other options for deployment would include laying the film flat on the ground or draping it overtop of targets or objects such as rock outcroppings, hillocks, vegetation, or built structures. This draping technique has the advantage of providing a 3-dimensional quality to the images so as to provide protection against low flying UAVs or humans on the ground. A specific application to this configuration may be to camouflage buildings by draping a large printed film sheet over top to make the building appear like a hillock or rock outcropping. In large-scale applications, the films can first be printed in smaller sections. These smaller sections can then be spliced together to form massive continuous sheets.
In the canopy arrangement, a secondary problem emerges since the film may cast a shadow due to the sunlight above it. To compensate for this underlying shadow beneath the film, an increase in the printed dot's lightness may be included following a Gaussian form as shown in
Another embodiment is a fourth protective layer above and adjacent to the image layer. Preferably, the protective layer is scratch-resistant, may contain ultraviolet protective coatings to minimize damage from solar radiation, and may contain an anti-reflective coating to eliminate glare from the sun.
Another specific embodiment is to use a protective canopy to camouflage a watercraft from aerial visible identification. This is achieved by using a landscape photographic quality image of the water that the watercraft is upon. However, unlike the proceeding methods prescribed, the opacity variation presented in
Although specific advantages have been enumerated above, various embodiments may include some, none, or all of the enumerated advantages. Other technical advantages may become readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after review of the following figures and description.
It should be understood at the outset that, although exemplary embodiments are illustrated in the figures and described below, the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented using any number of techniques, whether currently known or not. The present disclosure should in no way be limited to the exemplary implementations and techniques illustrated in the drawings and described below.
Unless otherwise specifically noted, the articles depicted in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.
Modifications, additions, or omissions may be made to the systems, apparatuses, and methods described herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure. For example, the components of the systems and apparatuses may be integrated or separated, and negatives of the images used. Moreover, the operations of the systems and apparatuses disclosed herein may be performed by more, fewer, or other components and the methods described may include more, fewer, or other steps. Additionally, steps may be performed in any suitable order.
To aid the Patent Office and any readers of any patent issued on this application in interpreting the claims appended hereto, applicants wish to note that they do not intend any of the appended claims or claim elements to invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) unless the words “means for” or “step for” are explicitly used in the particular claim.
