TOD characterization of the gatekeeper electro optical security system

The Triangle Orientation Discrimination (TOD) test method was applied to characterize thermal and visual range performance of the Gatekeeper Electro Optical Security System. Gatekeeper developed by Thales Nederland BV, is currently in use with the Royal Netherlands Navy. The system houses uncooled infrared and colour TV cameras providing up to 360° view in azimuth. The images displayed to the operator are automatically optimized based on the scene intensity distribution. Because of this built-in scene-based optimization, proper measurement of the system requires careful surround illumination of the TOD setup over a large part of the camera Field Of View. The tests provided very accurate threshold estimates with relatively small observer differences. The resulting TOD curves that characterize the sensor system in terms of acuity and contrast sensitivity can be used as input to a Target Acquisition model to predict range performance for operational scenarios