ISCC Online Seminar Series Presents:

The Right Paint Color to Help Hide a Helicopter

Presenter:Mr John Conant, Aerodyne Research, Inc
Date: March 29, 2-3PM EDT
Link: Registration closed
Presentation slides: 1.7MB PDF

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In this webinar I will illustrate the complexities of outdoor objects viewed in natural lighting, and will describe a model-based solution to color selection. This approach includes quantitative spectral computations of sun/earth/sky/ lighting with atmospheric scattering, 3D object reflections with BRDF, estimation of statistical background variability, and application of a color distance metric. I will describe an actual color-selection project to illustrate these issues.

Repainting aircraft and testing their detectability are both expensive tasks, so many military helicopters have been using the same dark-green paint in desert environments as they had in forested areas. The task was to recommend paint colors against several different background types. I will describe how this was accomplished.

About the presenter:
John Conant has been an applied physicist with Aerodyne Research, Inc. since 1977. After many years of Infrared studies he transitioned into the Visible arena, applying many of the same skills to color problems. Much of his work involves the development and application of software models to solve remote sensing problems, with a healthy dose of user training. His current projects include development of a cloud optical depth sensor, and the modeling of urban and suburban outdoor lighting.