Syntactic landmine detector

• US 20060087471A1
• Filed: 10/12/2005
• Published: 04/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: George Mason Intellectual Properties, Inc.
• Original Assignee: George Mason Intellectual Properties, Inc.
• Inventors: Hintz, Kenneth J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,320,271 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/22
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 11/136 Magnetic, electromagnetic, acoustic or radiation systems, e.g. ground penetrating radars or metal-detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/885 for ground probing prospecting or detecting using electromagnetic waves G01V3/12
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/2923 based on data belonging to a number of consecutive radar periods
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/412 based on a comparison between measured values and known or stored values
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/12 operating with electromagnetic waves operating with millimetre waves G01V8/005

Abstract

Disclosed is a Syntactic Landmine Detector. The syntactic landmine detector processes a received signal from a ground penetrating RADAR which contains at least one spatial sequence, the spatial sequence containing relative spatial information locating impedance discontinuities. The spatial sequence is then associated with at least one physical characteristic of a landmine.

Claims

1. A tangible computer-readable medium encoded with a landmine detection computer program, wherein execution of said “

computer program”

by one or more processors causes said “

one or more processors”

to perform the steps of;

a) receiving a received signal from a ground penetrating RADAR, said “

received signal”

containing relative spatial information locating impedance discontinuities;

b) processing said “

received signal”

to generate at least one spatial sequence characteristic of said “

relative spatial information”

; and

c) associating at least one of said “

at least one spatial sequence”

with a landmine when said “

at least one spatial sequence”

matches within a predetermined limit of at least one representation of a second spatial sequence, said second spatial sequence indicative of at least one physical characteristic of said “

landmine”

.

2. A tangible computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein said “

received signal”

is a time domain signal and said “

spatial information”

is temporal.

3. A tangible computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein step 1.c uses a non-reset finite state machine.

4. A tangible computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein step 1.c uses a language recognizer.

5. A tangible computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein step 1.c uses a multi-correlation mechanism.

6. A tangible computer-readable medium according to claim 1, further including the step of signal processing said “

received signal”

.

7. A tangible computer-readable medium according to claim 1, further including the step of signal processing said “

received signal”

using at least one of the following;

a) a 1-D inverse filtering step;

b) a 2-D inverse filtering step;

c) a 3-D inverse filtering step;

d) a spatial averaging filtering step;

e) an absolute value filtering step; and

f) a peak detection filtering step.

8. A tangible computer-readable medium according to claim 1, further including the steps of:

a) generating a 1-D inverse filtered signal by 1-D inverse filtering said “

received signal”

;

b) generating a 2-D inverse filtered signal by 2-D inverse filtering said 1-D inverse filtered signal;

c) generating a spatial averaged signal by spatial averaging said 2-D inverse filtered signal;

d) generating an absolute value filtered signal by absolute average filtering said spatial averaged signal; and

e) generating a peak detected signal by peak detection filtering said absolute value filtered signal.

9. A tangible computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein step 1.c compares at least one of said “

at least one spatial sequence”

with a predetermined sequence representing at least one physical characteristic of said landmine such that it is within a predetermined range.

10. A tangible computer-readable medium according to claim 1, further including the step of discriminating between at least one desired landmine and non-landmines.

11. A landmine detector, comprising:

a) a receiver, said receiver configured to receive a received signal from a ground penetrating RADAR, said “

received signal”

containing relative spatial information locating impedance discontinuities; and

b) a signal processor configured to generate at least one spatial sequence characteristic of said “

relative spatial information by signal processing said “

received signal”

; and

c) a sequence detector configured to associate at least one of said “

at least one spatial sequence”

with a landmine when said “

at least one spatial sequence”

matches within a predetermined limit of at least one representation of a second spatial sequence, said “

second spatial sequence”

indicative of at least one physical characteristic of said “

landmine”

.

12. A landmine detector according to claim 11, wherein said “

received signal”

is a time domain signal and said “

spatial information”

is temporal.

13. A landmine detector according to claim 11, wherein said “

sequence detector”

is a non-reset finite state machine.

14. A landmine detector according to claim 11, wherein said “

sequence detector”

is a language recognizer.

15. A landmine detector according to claim 11, wherein said “

sequence detector”

is a multi-correlation detector.

16. A landmine detector according to claim 11, further including a signal processor configured to process said “

received signal”

.

17. A landmine detector according to claim 16, wherein said “

signal processor”

includes at least one of the following;

a) a 1-D inverse filter;

b) a 2-D inverse filter;

c) a 3-D inverse filter;

d) an absolute value filter;

e) a peak detection filter; and

f) a spatial averaging filter.

18. A landmine detector according to claim 16, wherein said “

signal processor”

includes;

a) a 1-D inverse filter having a 1-D inverse filter input and a 1-D inverse filter output, said 1-D inverse filter input wired to receive said received input;

b) a 2-D inverse filter having a 2-D inverse filter input and a 2-D inverse filter output, said 2-D inverse filter input connected to said 1-D inverse filter output;

configured to generate a third signal by processing said received signal;

c) an absolute value filter having an absolute value filter input and an absolute value filter output, said absolute value input connected to said 2-D inverse filter output;

d) a peak detection filter having a peak detection filter input and a peak detection filter output, said peak detection input connected to said absolute value filter output; and

e) a spatial averaging filter having a spatial averaging filter input and a spatial averaging filter output, said spatial averaging filter input connected to said peak detection filter output.

19. A landmine detector according to claim 11, wherein said “

sequence detector”

compares at least one of said “

at least one spatial sequence”

with a predetermined sequence representing at least one physical characteristic of said “

landmine”

such that it is within a predetermined range.

20. A landmine detector according to claim 11, further including a discriminator configured to discriminate between at least one desired landmine and non-landmines.