SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ANALYZING OPTICAL SPECTRAL DATA OF A TERRAIN IMAGE

An image processing system and method for performing optical signal processing including target recognition and filtering. The system is particularly useful in remote or mobile imaging processing systems where the data gathering capabilities exceed the ability of the system to transmit this data over conventional data links. The system includes a spectrometer which receives portions of an image and produces a plurality of spectra of individual pixels in the image. A light-sensitive detector receives the spectra and converts the spectra into electrical signals. A memory unit stores a predetermined matrix of coefficients, each coefficient corresponding to one wavelength of said spectral signal. A multiply and accumulate unit received one spectral signal and a corresponding matrix coefficient and adds the products to generate a spectral measure for each pixel in the image. By changing the matrix in the memory unit, it is possible to synthesize a wide variety of desired optical processing functions such as target recognition, correlation and filtering.