Enhanced auditory processing for land mine detection using EMI sensors

Abstract

Although the ability of EMI sensors to detect landmines has improved significantly, false alarm rate reduction remains a challenging problem. Improvements have been achieved through development of optimal algorithms that exploit models of the underlying physics along with knowledge of clutter statistics. Moreover, experienced operators can often discriminate mines from clutter with the aid of an audio transducer, the method most commonly used to alert the sensor operator that a target is present. Assuming the basic information needed for discriminating landmines from clutter is largely available from existing sensors, the goal of this work is to optimize the presentation of information to the operator. Traditionally, an energy calculation is provided to the sensor operator via a signal whose loudness or frequency is proportional to the energy of the received signal. Our preliminary work has shown that when the statistic used to make a decision is not simply the signal energy the performance of mine detection systems can be improved dramatically. This fmding suggests that the operator could make better use of a signal that is a function of this more accurate test statistic, and that there may be information in the unprocessed sensor signal that the operator could use to effect discrimination. In this paper, we investigate and quantify, through listening experiments, the perceptual dimensions that most effectively convey the information in a sensor response to a listener. Results indicate that by supplying the sensor response more appropriately to the listener, discrimination, as opposed to simple detection, can be achieved.