Kenneth I Ranney from Monrovia, MD, age 63

Us Patents

System And Method For Moving Target Detection
view source
US Patent:

8502731, Aug 6, 2013
Filed:

Jan 18, 2011
Appl. No.:

13/008549
Inventors:

Anthony Frank Martone - Ellicott City MD, US
Kenneth Irving Ranney - Rockville MD, US
Assignee:

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army - Washington DC
International Classification:

G01S 13/00
US Classification:

342 93, 342160, 342191
Abstract:

A system and method of detecting moving targets comprises transmitting electromagnetic waves rays from a plurality of transmitters at sequential; receiving reflected waves into a plurality of receivers after each transmission; the compilation of the reflected waves from the plurality of receivers for each transmission representing a data frame; forming a signal that monitors changes between the two sets of frames; at least one processor operating to process and compare frames; forming a difference image using a back-projection algorithm; scanning the difference image using a constant false alarm rate (CFAR) window; the CFAR window scanning the entire difference image and identifying a list of points of interest and eliminating the sidelobe artifacts present in the difference image thereby creating CFAR images; processing the CFAR images using morphological processing to create a morphological image; determining the number of clusters present in the morphological image; using K-means clustering to indicate the centroid of each cluster; and tracking using a Kalman filter. The system comprises a plurality of M transmitters, a plurality of receivers, and at least one memory, the transmitters operating in sequence to transmit electromagnetic waves rays sequentially; the receivers receiving reflected waves after each transmission; the compilation of the reflected waves from the plurality of receivers for each transmission representing a data frame; at least one processor operating to perform the method.

Metric And Self-Calibration For An Automatic, Surveillance-Based Change Detection System Operating On Noisy Imagery
view source
US Patent:

20100238298, Sep 23, 2010
Filed:

Sep 21, 2009
Appl. No.:

12/563571
Inventors:

KENNETH I. RANNEY - Rockville MD, US
JEFFREY SICHINA - Ocean View DE, US
International Classification:

H04N 17/00
G06K 9/68
US Classification:

348188, 382218, 382294, 348E17002
Abstract:

Self-calibrating an automatic, surveillance-based change detection system operating on noisy imagery comprises detecting a first image co-registered with a second image, wherein the first image and the second image each comprise pixels of a noisy image of a scene; detecting the second image co-registered with the first image, wherein co-registration of the first image with the second image comprises pixels from different images corresponding to a same location within the scene; producing a calibration factor based on the co-registered images; producing a modified ratio of pixel values corresponding to the first image and the second image from the same location within the scene; and comparing the modified ratio to a pre-determined threshold ratio value.

System And Method For Iterative Fourier Side Lobe Reduction
view source
US Patent:

20110163912, Jul 7, 2011
Filed:

Mar 11, 2011
Appl. No.:

13/046250
Inventors:

Kenneth I. Ranney - Rockville MD, US
Jeffrey P. Sichina - Ocean View DE, US
Lam H. Nguyen - Laurel MD, US
Assignee:

U.S. Government as represented by the Secretary of the Army - Adelphi MD
International Classification:

G01S 13/90
G01S 13/00
US Classification:

342 25 F, 342179
Abstract:

A method and system for generating images from projection data comprising: at least one processor for processing input data, the input data comprising positional data and image data, the image data comprising frequency data for a pre-determined number k frequencies the at least one processor operating to: a) set the frequency data to zero for a predetermined percentage of the k frequencies to form modified frequency data; b) form a preliminary image comprising an array of retained pixel values based upon first positional data and the modified frequency data; c) set the frequency data to zero for a predetermined percentage of the k frequencies to form modified frequency data; d) form a modified image comprising an array of pixels based upon the positional data and the modified frequency data; e) compare the retained array of pixel values to the pixel values of the modified image formed at step (d); f) retain the minimum pixel value at each pixel location to form an image comprising minimum pixel values; g) repeat steps (c) through (f) for L iterations each time retaining an array of pixel values; h) output the image of retained pixel values.

Change Detection Method And System For Use In Detecting Moving Targets Behind Walls, Barriers Or Otherwise Visually Obscured
view source
US Patent:

20120182171, Jul 19, 2012
Filed:

Sep 15, 2011
Appl. No.:

13/233434
Inventors:

Anthony F. Martone - Ellicott City MD, US
Kenneth I. Ranney - Rockville MD, US
Calvin Duc Le - Rockville MD, US
Assignee:

U.S. Government as represented by the Secretary of the Army - Adelphi MD
International Classification:

G01S 13/56
US Classification:

342 22, 342 93
Abstract:

A system and method for locating a moving target behind a wall or barrier comprising: providing a plurality of images of the region of interest; selecting a reference image from the plurality of images; forming a predetermined number of difference images by subtracting the absolute value of the pixels of the reference image from the absolute values of pixels in a predetermined number of the plurality of images; eliminating negative pixel values in the predetermined number of difference images; minimizing the side lobes to form a combined difference image for each reference frame, selecting another reference image from the plurality of images and performing the steps of forming a plurality of difference images, eliminating negative pixel values, averaging the resulting predetermined number of difference images and minimizing the side lobes for each selected reference image to form a set of combined difference images which contain the moving target signature.

Autofocus-Based Compensation (Abc) System And Method For A Hovering Ground Moving Target Indication (Gmti) Sensor
view source
US Patent:

20140009324, Jan 9, 2014
Filed:

Jun 5, 2012
Appl. No.:

13/488750
Inventors:

Kenneth I. Ranney - Rockville MD, US
Geoffrey H. Goldman - Ellicot City MD, US
Roberto Innocenti - Clarksville MD, US
Jerry Lee Silvious - Burke VA, US
Assignee:

U.S. Government as represented by the Secretary of the Army - Adelphi MD
International Classification:

G01S 13/534
US Classification:

342161
Abstract:

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to motion compensation, and in particular to an autofocus-based compensation (ABC) systems and methods for a ground moving target indication platform. According to one embodiment, a method for autofocus based compensation of range data acquired from an object in motion is provided. The method may include: receiving range data; steering at least one receive beam of the range data in a desired direction; transforming the range data into the range domain; determining the width of a main clutter lobe; excluding data that is not part of the main lobe clutter response; transforming the main-lobe clutter response into the range domain; calculating a phase correction term; and applying the phase correction to the original range data.

System And Method For Enabling Radar Operation In A Spectrally Congested Environment
view source
US Patent:

20180348341, Dec 6, 2018
Filed:

Jun 5, 2018
Appl. No.:

16/000452
Inventors:

- Adelphi MD, US
Marc Allan Ressler - College Park MD, US
Kenneth I. Ranney - Monrovia MD, US
International Classification:

G01S 7/295
G01S 13/89
Abstract:

Embodiments of the present invention implement a novel methodology for processing radar image data from a radar system having one or more transmitter and receiver antenna pairs. The novel methodology deliberately operates on spectrally-notched radar data. It uses a specially-adapted version of the CLEAN algorithm to mitigate the effects of frequency-band notching. Following that, it performs a non-linear sidelobe-reduction algorithm to further eliminate artifacts and produce radar imagery of much higher quality. In some cases, it exploits a specific version of the recursive sidelobe minimization (RSM) algorithm which operates in the frequency and aperture (spatial) domain.

Spectrum Sensing For Advanced Radar Performance
view source
US Patent:

20180217230, Aug 2, 2018
Filed:

Feb 2, 2017
Appl. No.:

15/422553
Inventors:

- Adelphi MD, US
Kenneth I. Ranney - Rockville MD, US
Kelly D. Sherbondy - Burke VA, US
International Classification:

G01S 7/40
G01S 7/02
Abstract:

A spectrum sensing radar system including a spectrum power sensing module configured to sense electromagnetic signal powers in a plurality of sub-frequencies and generate a sensed power set including a plurality of sensed electromagnetic signal powers corresponding to each of the plurality of sub-frequencies; a multi-objective function module configured to receive the sensed power set and calculate a first objective function for each of the plurality of sub-frequencies, wherein the first objective function includes a power function divided by an empirical measure of interference of the sensed power set to form a signal plus noise objective function for a sub-frequency of the plurality of sub-frequencies, and wherein the power function further includes a peak transmit power of the radar system multiplied by a gain of an antenna of the radar system, multiplied by a wavelength of a carrier of the sub-frequency.

Method And Apparatus For Bandwidth Selection For Radar Transmission
view source
US Patent:

20180074165, Mar 15, 2018
Filed:

Aug 11, 2015
Appl. No.:

14/822949
Inventors:

- Adelphi MD, US
Kenneth I. Ranney - Rockville MD, US
Traian V. Dogaru - Ellicott City MD, US
Kelly D. Sherbondy - Burke VA, US
International Classification:

G01S 7/02
H04W 16/14
Abstract:

A method for optimizing bandwidth selection of a radar transmission in a frequency bandwidth in which the frequency bandwidth is divided into a plurality of sub-bands having a plurality of different bandwidths. The energy level is measured for each sub-band and a range resolution is also determined for each sub-band. Thereafter, a sub-band is selected in the frequency range where the signal to interference plus noise ratio plus the range resolution is maximum. Thereafter, a radar transmission is transmitted in the selected sub-band with a bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth of the selected sub-band.