EVALUATING SOUTHEAST ASIAN MILITARY CAMOUFLAGE DESIGNS USING CAMOUFLAGE SIMILARITY INDEX (CSI)

Abstract

Military camouflage plays a critical survivability component of the front-line soldiers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the existing military camouflage effectiveness across Southeast Asian countries using Camouflage Similarity Index (CSI). CSI is a color-based image algorithm based on CIELAB color space. The value ranges from 0 to 1 and the best value 0 is achieved if the selected camouflage perfectly blends with the selected background. 10 existing military camouflage designs across Southeast Asian countries were evaluated under 7 different locations (20x50 pixels) from 1 selected woodland background. Each location had different L*, a*, and b* values. Post-hoc Tukey test showed that there was no significant difference between camouflage, indicating that the existing Southeast Asian Military camouflage had equal effectiveness of concealment on the selected woodland background. This study represents the first attempt to investigate the effectiveness of Southeast Asian military camouflages. The results of this study could be very beneficial for Southeast Asian military organizations, academicians, and camouflage manufacturer in terms of finding the enhanced direction from the current design which subsequently enhances the survivability of the front-line soldiers.