Award Data

Face recognition performance using deep learning has seen dramatic improvements in recent years. This improvement has been fueled in part by the curation of large labeled training datasets with millions of images of hundreds of thousands of subjects.This results in effective generalization for matching over pose, illumination, expression and age variation, however these datasets have traditionally ...

Recognizing faces in low-light and nighttime conditions is a challenging problem due to the noisy and poor quality nature of the images.Thermal imaging is often used to obtain facial biometric in such conditions. Thermal face images, while having a strong signature at nighttime, are not typically maintained in biometric-enabled watch lists and so must be compared with visible-light face images to ...

The objective of this proposal is to develop instrumentation and algorithms for acquiring facial features for facial recognition in low- and no-light conditions.We will use cross-spectrum matching by exploiting infrared polarimetric imagery which tends to show features that match more closely visible imagery than conventional infrared.In addition to thermal infrared, we will also test subjects in ...

There is an urgent need to bypass or cross the blood brain barrier (BBB) to deliver drugs for TBI treatment. This project aims to develop targted intranasally delivered, magnetically propulsed, and targted nanoparticles for traumatic brain injury (TBI). In Phase I, we will demonstrate the design, fabrication, and in vitro characterization of proposed drug laden magnetic nanoparticles as well as co ...

SOF combat swimmers have a need for the continuous monitoring of each others relative position while diving and for the capability of being able to communicate with each other to help establish a common operational picture (COP).The C3SA system was previously developed under SBIR Topic SOCOM08-001 thru the receipt of both Phase I and Phase II SBIR awards.The C3SA established a stand-alone network ...

Airway compromise is the third leading cause of potentially preventable death on the battlefield. Current evaluation techniques of the airways associated with smoke inhalation injury are highly subjective and lack the sensitivity required of an accurate diagnostic and assessment tool. The problem of detection is further compounded by the late onset of symptoms that in many cases do not present unt ...

In the setting of altitude-induced hypoxia, operator cognitive capacity degrades and can compromise both individual and team performance. This degradation is linked to falling brain energy (ATP) levels and an increased reliance on anaerobic energy production from glucose. Ketone bodies are the evolutionary alternative substrate to glucose for brain metabolic requirements; previous studies have sho ...

Special Operations Forces (SOF) are an integral aspect of the US military. SOF operators are among the most elite and highly qualified individuals in the U.S. military. As such, extraordinary physical and mental demands are placed upon them to excel in extreme environments for extended periods of time. This unrelenting cycle of combat deployments and intense pre-deployment training shortens the fu ...

Acclimatization is the long-term adjustment that humans experience when exposed for weeks or months to high altitude. Acclimatization is important in this context because a warfighter who is acclimatized to high altitude is immune to high altitude illness, has superior work capacity, and has cognitive function approaching that found at sea level. In other words, the acclimatized warfighter is opti ...

Adverse physiological events (PEs) have plagued warfighters piloting military aircraft, in particular PEs involving hypoxia and cockpit cabin decompression. Though there has been a large variety of research performed in trying to understand the problems and why theyre caused, there are inefficiencies due to the lack of standardized cross-laboratory protocols, procedures, and metrics. To address th ...