Active hyperspectral sensing for border control

Abstract

There is a need for sensor technologies capable of identifying illegal border crossings through foliage. In this work, we study the use of a novel active hyperspectral sensor for remote identification of persons and vehicles through foliage. The AHS sensor is based on a continuously tunable near-infrared supercontinuum light source and a microelectromechanical Fabry-Pérot interferometer for transmission band selection. Real-time spectral detection algorithms are used to identify the targets based on the spectral content of the back-scattered light. Preliminary results are presented from both in-lab and outdoors.