Method and apparatus for identifying buried objects using ground penetrating radar

1. An apparatus for identifying a buried object using ground penetrating radar (GPR) containing at least one GPR sensor, comprising:

an image processor for building a data structure corresponding to an image of a subsurface region containing the buried object from data collected from the at least one GPR sensor;

a feature processor for processing the data structure to extract at least one identifiable feature of the buried object from the data; and

a discriminator for identifying the buried object from the at least one identifiable feature.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a display for presenting a representation of the identified buried object.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the representation of the identified buried object presented by the display comprises a three-dimensional rendering of a surveyed site containing the buried object.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the representation of the identified buried object presented by the display comprises a sequence of two-dimensional images of a reconstruction of a surveyed site containing the buried object.

5. An apparatus for identifying a buried object using ground penetrating radar (GPR) in a system containing at least one GPR sensor, comprising:

a data processor for processing data collected from the at least one GPR sensor to extract at least one identifiable feature of the buried object from the data; and

a detector for identifying the buried object from the at least one identifiable feature, wherein the detector comprises a depth indicator for directing the detector to a specified depth range.

6. An apparatus for identifying a buried object using ground penetrating radar (GPR) in a system containing at least one GPR sensor, comprising:

a data processor for processing data collected from the at least one GPR sensor to extract at least one identifiable feature of the buried object from the data; and

a detector for identifying the buried object from the at least one identifiable feature, wherein the detector comprises a refractive index indicator for directing the detector to an object within a specified refractive index range.

7. A subsurface object locating system, comprising:

at least one ground penetrating radar (GPR) sensor,

a data processor, responsive to signals from the at least one GPR sensor, for generating data signals representative of a subsurface region scanned via the at least one GPR sensor;

an image processor for building a three-dimensional data structure corresponding to an image of the subsurface region from data signals generated by the data processor;

a feature processor for processing the three-dimensional data structure to extract an identifiable feature of an object buried the subsurface region; and

a display for presenting a representation of the identified buried object, based on the extracted identifiable feature of the buried object.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the representation of the identified buried object presented by the display comprises a three-dimensional rendering of a surveyed site containing the buried object.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the representation of the identified buried object presented by the display comprises a sequence of two-dimensional images of a reconstruction of a surveyed site containing the buried object.

10. A program product comprising instructions embodied in a computer readable medium, wherein the instructions are for causing one or more programmable computers to perform steps, comprising:

processing signals from at least one GPR sensor to generate data signals representative of a subsurface region scanned by the at least one GPR sensor;

building a three-dimensional data structure corresponding to an image of the subsurface region from the data signals representative of the subsurface region;

processing the three-dimensional data structure to extract an identifiable feature of an object buried in the scanned subsurface region; and

generating a three-dimensional representation of the buried object in the scanned subsurface region for display to a user, based on the extracted identifiable feature of the buried object.