Sensor APEX Acting Director Bill Turri holds one of the research group's sensor processing boards.
The Sensor Systems research effort at the University of Dayton Research Institute has grown significantly since its inception in 2007. A group of 32 full-time researchers focused on research and development for sensors for surveillance applications have been spun off as the Sensor Accelerated Processing and Exploitation (Sensor APEX) office.
Sensor APEX researchers are focused on developing and integrating sensors (signal, image, image compression, data processing) that accelerate the speed at which data are transmitted to those who analyze and monitor them.
In recent years, sensor systems for image collection and processing have exploded in terms of the variety and amount of data they can collect, says Bill Turri, acting head of Sensor APEX. The challenge has been to process and compress massive amounts of sensor data, so images and information can be quickly transmitted, but also be of high quality. Having quick access to accurate information allows analysts and decision makers to react to what they're seeing in real time.
Researchers also are making strides to automatically tailor data processing to the needs of users.
If you're monitoring an image feed of a large area, but you're only interested in seeing moving objects, your computer can be programmed to deliver only information on where those moving objects are located, says Turri. It's more efficient for your computer and you, because sections of the imagery where there are no moving objects won't need to be processed or viewed.
The elevation of this research group to the status of an office will allow its researchers greater freedom and authority to plot their own business strategy and pursue additional research programs.
