VOXEL BASED THREE DIMENSIONAL VIRTUAL ENVIROMENTS

• US 20110199376A1
• Filed: 02/17/2010
• Published: 08/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: SALEMANN, LEO
• Granted Patent: US 8,525,834 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/424
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models

Abstract

Geospatial information specific to a real-world volumetric space can be gathered. The gathered information can be stored in a voxel database. The stored information can be indexed against voxels, which correspond to volume units of the real-world volumetric space. Stored information can be extracted from the voxel database. The extracted information can be directly inserted into an interactive three dimensional (3D) application providing a simulation space. The 3D application can interactively presents 3D entities programmed with entity specific intelligence within the simulation space. Each 3D entity can dynamically move and react in the simulation space in a geospatially constrained manner in accordance with the entity specific intelligence and in accordance with limitations of the simulation space.

Claims

1. A method for creating data sets for an interactive three dimensional (3D) environment with interactive entities comprising:

identifying a voxel database representing a volumetric storage space comprising a set of unique volumetric storage units called voxels, wherein data elements are stored to a subset of the voxels, wherein a spatial position of the data elements within the volumetric storage space is defined at least in part by the subset of the voxels; and

determining a set of objects contained within a volume of the volumetric storage space by processing a set of data elements extracted from the voxel database, where the set of data elements are stored in a subset of the voxels that correspond to the volume, where the set of objects were not explicitly stored as discrete objects within the voxel database but were defined in the data elements of the volumetric storage space and were discernable once the data elements were processed, wherein the set of objects affect behavior of a plurality of 3D entities within a sub-volume of simulation space corresponding to the volume of the volumetric storage space.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

gathering geospatial information specific to a real-world volumetric space; and

storing the geospatial information in the volumetric storage space as specific ones of the data elements, wherein said sub-volume of simulation space comprises the plurality of 3D entities, which are able to dynamically move and react in the simulation space in a geospatially constrained manner in accordance with computer controlled logic and user-provided input.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data elements of the volumetric storage space when stored in the voxel database are referenced against voxels and are not directly referenced against other defined objects present in the volumetric storage space.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the simulation space is an interactive space of a semi-automated force (SAF) application, and wherein each of the 3D entities are simulated force entities of the semi-automated force (SAF) application.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

directly inserting the set of data elements from the voxel database into application components of an interactive 3-D application, where the application components generate three-dimensional user interfaces for the simulation space and control behavior of the 3D entities within the simulation space, wherein at least one of the application components is a terrain component, which comprises a voxel encoded terrain map corresponding to at least a portion of the real-world volumetric space, which is directly consumable by a raster-based terrain engine of a simulation device presenting the three-dimensional user interfaces that expresses the simulation space.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the simulation space is a geo-specific synthetic environment of a battlefield, and wherein the simulated force entities comprise military personnel, military vehicles, and civilians.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

directly inserting the set of data elements from the voxel database into application components of an interactive 3-D application, where the application components generate three-dimensional user interfaces for the simulation space and control behavior of the 3D entities within the simulation space, wherein one of the application components comprises an area component defining temporally dynamic characteristics of the simulation space based on corresponding temporally dynamic conditions of the real-world volumetric space.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the geospatial information specific to the real world volumetric space comprises weather conditions, wherein the data elements of the volumetric space define weather conditions approximately equivalent to those of the geospatial information, wherein the weather conditions of the data elements are expressed in the simulation space in a manner corresponding to the weather conditions detailed in the geospatial information.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

directly inserting the set of data elements from the voxel database into application components of an interactive 3-D application, where the application components generate three-dimensional user interfaces for the simulation space and control behavior of the 3D entities within the simulation space, wherein one of the application components comprises an entity behavior component defining behavioral characteristics of one of the 3D entities based on corresponding behavioral characteristics discernable from the geospatial information.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

directly inserting the set of data elements from the voxel database into application components of an interactive 3-D application, where the application components generate three-dimensional user interfaces for the simulation space and control behavior of the 3D entities within the simulation space, wherein one of the application components comprises a component for at least one simulated human, which is one of the 3D entities, wherein the entity specific intelligence for the simulated human is based on behavior of a specific real-world human as discernable from the geospatial information.

11. A computer program product for creating data sets for an interactive 3D environment with interactive entities comprising:

a tangible computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code operable to identify a voxel database representing a volumetric storage space comprising a set of unique volumetric storage units called voxels, wherein data elements are stored to specific ones of the voxels, wherein a spatial position of the data elements within the volumetric storage space is defined at least in part by which of the voxels the data elements are stored;

computer usable program code operable to gather geospatial information specific to a real-world volumetric space;

computer usable program code operable to store the geospatial information in the volumetric storage space as specific ones of the data elements;

computer usable program code operable to extract a set of data elements from the voxel database for a volume of the volumetric space to be used for a corresponding volume of simulation space, said volume of simulation space comprising a plurality of 3D entities that are able to dynamically move and react in the simulation space in a geospatially constrained manner in accordance with computer controlled logic and user-provided input; and

computer usable program code operable to determine a set of objects contained within a corresponding volume of simulation space by processing the set of data elements extracted from the voxel database, where the set of objects were not explicitly stored as discrete objects within the voxel database but were defined in the data elements of the volumetric storage space and were discernable once the data elements were processed, wherein the set of objects contained in the simulation space affect behavior of the plurality of 3D entities within the simulation space.

12. A system for creating data sets for an interactive 3D environment with interactive entities comprising:

a processor;

a non-volatile memory;

a volatile memory;

a plurality of input devices;

a plurality of output devices, wherein said different output devices generate output for at least two different senses;

a bus communicatively linking the processor non-volatile memory, volatile memory, the input devices, and the output devices to each other;

at least one computer program product tangibly stored on the non-volatile memory or the volatile memory, wherein instructions of the computer program product are executable by the processor, which when executed cause the system to;

identify a voxel database representing a volumetric storage space comprising a set of unique volumetric storage units called voxels, wherein data elements are stored to a subset of the voxels, wherein a spatial position of the data elements within the volumetric storage space is defined at least in part by the subset of the voxels; and

determine a set of objects contained within a volume of the volumetric storage space by processing a set of data elements extracted from the voxel database, where the set of data elements are stored in a subset of the voxels that correspond to the volume, where the set of objects were not explicitly stored as discrete objects within the voxel database but were defined in the data elements of the volumetric storage space and were discernable once the data elements were processed, wherein the set of objects affect behavior of a plurality of 3D entities within a sub-volume of simulation space corresponding to the volume of the volumetric storage space.

13. A method for creating data sets for an interactive 3D environment with interactive entities comprising:

obtaining a plurality of sensor captured products each from a real-world volumetric space;

combining the sensor captured products together in a voxel database, wherein the voxel database represents a volumetric storage space comprising a set of unique volumetric storage units called voxels, wherein data elements are stored to specific ones of the voxels, wherein a spatial position of the data elements within the volumetric storage space is defined at least in part by which of the voxels the data elements are stored, wherein each voxel of the voxel database comprises information from the plurality of sensor captured products that relates to the corresponding volumetric unit of the volumetric storage space;

receiving a 3D product generation request, said 3D product generation request specifying a bounded simulation space volume for a related 3D product;

querying the voxel database for a set of voxel units contained within a volume of volumetric storage space corresponding to the bounded simulation space; and

generating a product data set for the bounded simulation space volume, wherein the product data set comprises visual information necessary to drive a voxel graphics engine of the related 3D product to render a three-dimensional environment for the bounded simulation space and comprises non-visual semantic information necessary to drive behavior of 3D entities interacting within in the bounded simulation space.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the sensor captured products comprise satellite imagery, digital elevation models (DEMs), and captured video of the real-world volumetric space.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

creating vehicle behavior models for vehicle entities, which are specific ones of the 3D entities) from guidance software of unmanned vehicles, wherein the guidance software is one of the captured products of the real-world volumetric space, which is digitally encoded into the voxel database.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying working software modules used in unmanned vehicle guidance systems for navigating the real-world volumetric space, wherein the working software modules comprise a voxel based navigation engine; and

including the working software modules in the product data set, wherein the working software modules are directly used by the 3D product to control navigation functions of a simulated vehicle as it moves within the bounded simulation space.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the 3D product is a Semi-Automated Force product.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the non-visual semantic information comprises temporally dynamic characteristics of the simulation space based on corresponding temporally dynamic conditions of the real-world volumetric space, wherein said temporally dynamic characteristics includes weather conditions of the simulation space that correspond to weather conditions of the real-world volumetric space.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein non-visual semantic information behavioral characteristics of a computer generated force entity based on corresponding behavioral characteristics entities of a corresponding entity physically present in the real-world volumetric space, wherein said behavioral characteristics were inferred from the sensor captured products.

20. A computer program product for creating data sets for an interactive 3D environment with interactive entities, the computer program product comprising:

a tangible computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code operable to obtain a plurality of sensor captured products each from a real-world volumetric space;

computer usable program code operable to combine the sensor captured products together in a voxel database, wherein the voxel database represents a volumetric storage space comprising a set of unique volumetric storage units called voxels, wherein data elements are stored to specific ones of the voxels, wherein a spatial position of the data elements within the volumetric storage space is defined at least in part by which of the voxels the data elements are stored, wherein each voxel of the voxel database comprises information from the plurality of sensor captured products that relates to the corresponding volumetric unit of the volumetric storage space;

computer usable program code operable to receive a 3D product generation request, said 3D product generation request specifying a bounded simulation space volume for a related 3D product;

computer usable program code operable to query the voxel database for a set of voxel units contained within a volume of volumetric storage space corresponding to the bounded simulation space; and

computer usable program code operable to generate a product data set for the bounded simulation space volume, wherein the product data set comprises visual information necessary to drive a voxel graphics engine of the related 3D product to render a three-dimensional environment for the bounded simulation space and comprises non-visual semantic information necessary to drive behavior of 3D entities interacting within in the bounded simulation space.

21. A voxel database managing information within an indexed tangible storage medium, said voxel database comprising:

a plurality of voxel records in a voxel table, where each of the records has a unique voxel identifier, wherein said voxel database comprises hardware and computer program products stored on a tangible storage medium and executable upon said hardware, wherein said voxel table is stored in a tangible storage medium;

each voxel record comprising visual attributes of a geometric space, wherein uniquely defined voxels of voxel database is a volume unit on a grid in three dimensional space, which is a voxel space, wherein a one-to-one correspondence exists between voxels in the voxel space and volume units of a real world volumetric space from which geospatial data was directly gathered and encoded within the voxel database; and

a plurality of entity records, wherein each record has a unique identifier for a 3D entity, each entity record being indexed against at least one voxel record within the voxel database, each entity record comprising a plurality of different attributes for characteristics of the corresponding 3D entity, said different attributes of the entity records comprising sufficient information to permit an interactive 3D application consuming the information to drive behavior of the corresponding 3D entity acting in a simulation space comprising simulation units, said simulation units corresponding to voxels of the voxel database.

22. The voxel database of claim 21, wherein data stored in the voxel database is probabilistic data that represents a level of uncertainty by incorporating inconsistent geospatial data from a plurality of different raw data sources.

23. The voxel database of claim 22, wherein each of said characteristic attributes comprises a lower value and an upper value, wherein the lower value and upper value expresses a degree of uncertainty of that sensory attribute.

24. The voxel database of claim 21, further comprising:

a plurality of feature records in a plurality of feature tables, wherein each of the feature records comprises a unique feature identifier, a feature type, and a plurality of feature attributes, wherein a feature corresponds to a real world object, wherein different feature tables are tables specific to different types of real world objects, and wherein the feature attributes of the feature tables are specific attributes for the real world objects, which vary from feature table to feature table; and

a plurality of shape records in a shape table, wherein each of the shape records comprises a unique shape identifier, a shape type, a plurality of shape attributes, and a foreign key to a feature identifier, wherein types of shapes are primitive shapes that comprise a box, a cylinder, a sphere, and a cone, wherein a one-to-many relationship exists between features and shapes, wherein each record of the voxel table comprises a foreign key to a shape identifier, wherein a one-to-many relationship exists between voxels and primitive shapes.

25. The voxel database of claim 21, wherein the voxel database is a component of a geographic information system, which also includes a feature database comprising a plurality of feature records in a plurality of feature tables, which are indexed against voxels in the voxel database, wherein each feature corresponds to a real world three dimensional object.