Patent ID: 8243551

Claim:
A computer implemented method for determining if a change detection sonar contact in change detection side scan sonar imagery matches a historical contact of the same geospatial location, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, from a computer-readable medium, historical side scan sonar imagery in an area-based tile format; automatically generating a historical region of uncertainty around the historical contacts in the historical side scan sonar imagery; automatically generating a change detection region of uncertainty around the change detection sonar contact; for each change detection sonar contact, automatically locating historical contacts in the historical side scan sonar imagery in the change detection region of uncertainty; automatically identifying the located historical contacts as possible matches; if none of the located historical contacts falls within the change detection region of uncertainty, automatically saving to a computer-readable medium the historical contacts that have a historical region of uncertainty that overlaps the change detection region of uncertainty; and automatically identifying the saved historical contacts as the possible matches.