Three-wavelength laser dazzler soft-countermeasure

Abstract

Lasers are widely used in daily activities; they are found everywhere from simple laser pointers to remote sensing devices. When a high level of laser radiation is reaching the human eyes or any imaging devices it will disrupt the vision creating what is called a dazzle effect. This effect is used by the military to decrease the combat efficiency of an enemy. Various laser dazzlers were manufactured to target personnel as well as optoelectronic devices such as cameras and missile sensors. The most advanced ones use three different wavelengths to target all the visible range and all the sensors of the imaging device. In this work, the reduction of the laser dazzle effect on focal plane array cameras is performed using two different image processing algorithms. The results show that there is a notable reduction of the dazzle effect and a massive improvement in the field of view in the enhanced images. More details can be recovered and visualized in the areas out of the central spot.