Protection performance evaluation regarding imaging sensors hardened against laser dazzling

Electro-optical imaging sensors are widely distributed and used for many different tasks in military operations and civil security. However, their operational capability can be easily disturbed by laser radiation. The likeliness of such an incidence has dramatically increased in the past years due to the free availability of high-power laser pointers. These laser systems, offering laser powers of several watts, pose an increased risk to the human eye as well as to electro-optical sensors. An adequate protection of electro-optical sensors against dazzling is highly desirable. Such protection can be accomplished with different technologies; however, none of the existing technologies can provide a sufficient protection. All current protection measures possess individual advantages and disadvantages. We present the results on the performance of two different protection technologies. The evaluation is based on automatic optical pattern recognition of sensor images taken from a scene containing triangles.