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A major problem with MultiSensor Information Fusion (MSIF) is establishing the level of processing at which information should be fused.Current methodologies, whether based on fusion at the data element, segment /feature, or symbolic levels, are each inadequate for robust MSIF.Data -element fusion has problems with coregistration.Attempts to fuse information using the features of segmented data relies on a presumed similarity between the segmentation characteristics of each data stream. Symbolic -level fusion requires too much advance processing (including object identification) to be useful.MSIF systems need to operate in real -time, must perform fusion using a variety of sensor types, and should be effective across a wide range of operating conditions or deployment environments.We address this problem through developing a new representation level which facilitates matching and information fusion.The Hierarchical Data Structure (HDS) representation, created using a multilayer, cooperative /competitive neural network, meets this need.The HDS is an intermediate representation between the raw or smoothed data stream and symbolic interpretation of the data.It represents the structural organization of the data. Fused HDSs will incorporate information from multiple sensors.Their knowledge -rich structure aids top -down scene interpretation via both model matching and knowledge -based region interpretation. ABSTRACTA major problem with MultiSensor information Fusion (MSIF) is establishing the level of processing at which information should be fused.Current methodologies, whether based on fusion at the data element, segment/feature, or symbolic levels, are each inadequate for robust MSIF.Data-element fusion has problems with coregistration.Attempts to fuse information using the features of segmented data relies on a presumed similarity between the segmentation characteristics of each data stream. Symbolic-level fusion requires too much advance processing (including object identification) to be useful.

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