Performance characterization of night vision equipment based on the triangle orientation discrimination methodology

Night vision equipment is crucial in order to accomplish supremacy and safety of the troops on the battlefield. Evidently, system integrators, ministry of defenses and end-users need access to reliable quantitative characterization of the expected field performance when using night vision equipment. The image intensifier tube is one of the most important engines driving the performance for night vision equipment. As a major tube manufacturer, Photonis investigates the link between its products physical design parameters and the actual end-user field performance. The developments include (1) an end-to-end performance measurement method and test facility, (2) an image-based night vision simulation, and (3) a range estimation model. The purpose is twofold: (1) being able to support the need of the integrators and end-users and (2) further systematic improvement of night vision equipment design. For the end-to-end test, Photonis and TNO cooperated in the implementation of the triangle orientation discrimination (TOD) test for night vision equipment. This test provides a clear and rigorous ranking of the products with respect to their target acquisition performance level. We present the Photonis night vision test laboratory, provide TOD results for a set of night vision devices, and show range prediction examples