METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING THREATS IN DIFFERENT AREAS

• US 20040183712A1
• Filed: 12/08/2003
• Published: 09/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lester Kosowsky
• Original Assignee: Personnel Protection Technologies, LLC
• Inventors: Kosowsky, Lester, Levitan, Arthur C.
• Granted Patent: US 6,856,272 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/22
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 13/00 Means of attack or defence not otherwise provided for details of radar or sonar systems G01S7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/08 Systems for measuring distance only indirect measurement G01S13/46
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/74 Systems using reradiation of radio waves, e.g. secondary radar systems; Analogous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/86 Combinations of radar systems with non-radar systems, e.g. sonar, direction finder
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/872 Combinations of primary radar and secondary radar
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 31/00 Predictive alarm systems characterised by extrapolation or other computation using updated historic data

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for early detection and identification of a threat such as individuals carrying hidden explosive materials, land mines on roads, etc. are disclosed. Methods comprise transmitting radar signals in the direction of a potential threat, measuring the energy in reflected signals, dynamically generating a threat threshold value from signals received from multiple areas and comparing the energy in the reflected signals corresponding to different areas to the generated threat threshold value. The threat threshold value may be generated by averaging the weighted reflected energy measured from different areas during a single scan of a region including the different areas. The contribution to the threshold from different areas is weighted in some embodiments as a function of the distance from the transmitter and/or receiver to the particular area. Analysis of areas and treating different areas as segments facilitates accurate analysis and display of threat information.

Claims

12-1. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a display processor; and

a display, said display processor generating a visual representation on said display of at least some of said plurality of areas and indicating on said visual representation areas having modified detected energy values which exceed said threat reference threshold.

18. A method for facilitating detection of a threat, the method comprising:

i) operating a transmitter to transmit signals in the direction of a plurality of cells to pan a scene corresponding to said plurality of cells;

ii) operating a receiver to detect reflected signals during an analysis period received from said plurality of cells, at least some of said cells being at different distances from the receiver; and

iii) determining a threat reference threshold for the analysis period as a function of the reflected signals detected during the analysis period, said step of determining a threat threshold including;

measuring detected reflected signals corresponding to at least some of said plurality of said cells to generate a measured signal value for each particular one of said at least some cells;

modifying the measured signal values corresponding to some particular ones of said at least some cells by a distance factor corresponding to the distance the particular one of the cells is from the receiver to generate a modified measured signal value for each of said some particular ones of said cells; and

generating the threat reference threshold as a function of at least some of the modified measured signal values.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein generating the threat reference threshold includes:

averaging the modified measured signal values corresponding to a plurality of cells in which at least one human being is located; and

and establishing said threat reference threshold from the generated average.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the measured signal values are energy values.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein said scene is an outdoor scene.

22. The method of claim 28, wherein said scene is an indoor scene.