Range performance across the field of view of a camera

Wide Field of View (WFOV) cameras have the potential to increase situational awareness. To achieve larger fields of view, engineers and scientists can introduce a distorted lens system with non-rectilinear optical projections into the camera. These large angular spans and distorted optical projections change the instantaneous Field of View (iFOV) of each pixel across the Focal Plane Array (FPA) substantially enough to affect the overall performance of the imaging system. In this correspondence, we provide an example of how to evaluate the per pixel performance of a WFOV camera system. We began by using the Targeting Task Performance (TTP) metric and the Night Vision Integrated Performance Model (NVIPM) to predict the performance of a WFOV camera based on its expected intrinsic camera parameters such as: focal length, ideal optical projection model, resolution, and noise properties. Then, we measured the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), Noise Equivalent Temperature Difference (NETD), and iFOV across the FPA using two different direct measurement techniques to update the model predictions and evaluate range performance across the field of view of a camera.