The technology behind the human eye could soon be used to improve satellite images, ONR researchers are claiming. An advanced neural network using the human visual system as a model is behind the technique? ?This technology essentially increases the resolution of satellite images,? said ONR Program Officer Harold Szu, who presented the results of this research this week at the International Society for Optical Engineering symposium in Orlando. The new ?wavelet? technique reveals objects that traditional techniques might overlook by using highly sophisticated neural network technology to eliminate distracting ?background noise? and make subtle judgments about the remaining information. The key to the ONR breakthrough is a smart sensing capability modeled on the human visual system. A pair or more of sensors survey the scene and compare and contrast data before creating the final image - similar to the way a person’s visual system uses a pair of eyes to generate a single image. Biological sensing systems typically contain two sensors to provide the brain with an immediate comparison that doesn’t rely on past memory or detailed instructions from a teacher to draw conclusions from the information. When the sensors are in agreement, the brain regards the data as information; when they disagree, the brain disregards the data as noise. ?It’s not the ‘garbage in, garbage out’ processing of a typical computer, which is a faithful processor but not a very smart one,? said James Buss, also a researcher with ONR. The smart sensing system can dig out the nuggets of information even if they’re buried in garbage. ?Sensor pairs are no doubt a survival mechanism that gives us the maximum amount of feedback in the shortest span of time,? Szu said. ?They allow a child to learn about the world without a lesson plan or the constant presence of a teacher.?Remote sensing is the first real-world application of smart sensor processing. It will provide detailed compositions of information within each pixel on Landsat images. The technology will be installed in F-18 military aircraft to assist pilots in passive surveillance.