Visual display apparatus
First Claim
1. Head-coupled, area-of-interest, visual display apparatus providing stereoscopic viewing for more than one viewer comprising a part-spherical retro-reflective/concave screen of area greater than a viewer'"'"'s instantaneous field of view and, for each viewer, a helmet, sensing means for sensing the orientation of the respective viewer'"'"'s head and helmet, visual image generating means for generating a simulated scene in the direction of the respective viewer'"'"'s instantaneous line of view according to a common simulated vehicle position and orientation and under control of the respective sensing means, the said respective image generating means being adapted for providing a stereoscopic pair of images corresponding to the respective viewer'"'"'s left eye and right eye views, a laser beam source for producing laser beams, separate laser beam modulators for the left eye and right eye views for modulating said laser beam, separate line scanners for each said view for scanning the modulated laser beams over the input ends of respective fibre optic light guides, the said fibre optic light guides having their output ends at spaced-apart positions on the respective viewer'"'"'s helmet, and frame scanning means mounted on the said helmet for receiving light from the light guide outputs and projecting the light as a scanned image upon the said screen.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention provides head-coupled area-of-interest visual display apparatus particularly for ground-based craft-flight simulators. The apparatus provides a stereoscopic pair of images for both a pilot and co-pilot, projected onto the inside of a part-spherical shell, which carries a concave retro-reflective screen and surrounds the two pilots. The display scenes cover an area of interest centered upon each pilot'"'"'s line of view. A separate image generator is used for each pilot and may be of the computer generated image, laser-scanned model or closed-circuit television type. For stereoscopic viewing a modified image is provided for each eye of each pilot and for each pilot the two images are separately projected from points on a respective pilot helmet above the eye positions. Line scan apparatus is mounted in the pilots'"'"' cockpit; line image transmission is by two pairs of fibre optic light guide ribbons; and frame scan apparatus is mounted on the two pilots'"'"' helmets. A sensor measures head/helmet movements of each pilot to permit voluntary individual scanning of a wide angle of simulated view from the craft.
43 Citations
5 Claims
- 1. Head-coupled, area-of-interest, visual display apparatus providing stereoscopic viewing for more than one viewer comprising a part-spherical retro-reflective/concave screen of area greater than a viewer'"'"'s instantaneous field of view and, for each viewer, a helmet, sensing means for sensing the orientation of the respective viewer'"'"'s head and helmet, visual image generating means for generating a simulated scene in the direction of the respective viewer'"'"'s instantaneous line of view according to a common simulated vehicle position and orientation and under control of the respective sensing means, the said respective image generating means being adapted for providing a stereoscopic pair of images corresponding to the respective viewer'"'"'s left eye and right eye views, a laser beam source for producing laser beams, separate laser beam modulators for the left eye and right eye views for modulating said laser beam, separate line scanners for each said view for scanning the modulated laser beams over the input ends of respective fibre optic light guides, the said fibre optic light guides having their output ends at spaced-apart positions on the respective viewer'"'"'s helmet, and frame scanning means mounted on the said helmet for receiving light from the light guide outputs and projecting the light as a scanned image upon the said screen.
Specification