Apparatus and method for simulating sensor imagery
First Claim
1. A system for displaying a field of view representing values of a simulated data variable, said system comprising:
- an image generator comprising a computer having an output and transmitting thereon a video signal comprising at least two simulation generated digital data channels; and
a display system connected with the output of the image generator and receiving said channels of digital data therefrom;
said display system including a combiner circuit receiving and processing the channels of data;
said display system further having a visual display device connected with the combiner circuit and displaying video imagery derived from said video signal in a field of pixels so as to be viewable by a user;
said digital data channels of the video signal from the image generator each comprising a plurality of bit sets each corresponding to a respective location in the field of view and having a preset number of bits of digital data therein;
the bit sets of the first channel each representing a respective value of the simulated data variable at a first resolution, and the bit sets of the second channel each representing a respective value of the simulated data variable at a second resolution higher than the first resolution.
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Abstract
The present invention provides a simulation for displaying a screen formulated from data, such as a FLIR sensor, relying on color definitions that are more readily supported by common image generators, most preferably 8-bit per channel RGB color processing and video output. The system has an image generator that transmits a video signal of at least two digital data channels, and a display system with a combiner circuit and a visual display device. The bit sets of the channels each represent a respective value of the data variable at a resolution for that channel, and the bit sets of the second channel each represent a respective value of the data variable at a second resolution higher than the resolution of the first channel. Combiner circuitry receives the channels of video output and processes these channels to select the channel which represents the accurate data unaffected by clamping. It is preferred to provide at least three channels of pixel data representing the value of the display data, in three different resolutions and ranges, high resolution; middle resolution and low resolution. In the preferred embodiment, the data displayed on the display device are simulated FLIR infra-red intensities, which correlate to the temperatures of the simulated objects being viewed. Preferably, the ranges of different resolution IR data encompass the ambient temperature being simulated, because attenuation of infra-red in reality tends to compress all detected infra-red temperatures to a narrow field around ambient temperature.
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Citations
47 Claims
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1. A system for displaying a field of view representing values of a simulated data variable, said system comprising:
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an image generator comprising a computer having an output and transmitting thereon a video signal comprising at least two simulation generated digital data channels; and
a display system connected with the output of the image generator and receiving said channels of digital data therefrom;
said display system including a combiner circuit receiving and processing the channels of data;
said display system further having a visual display device connected with the combiner circuit and displaying video imagery derived from said video signal in a field of pixels so as to be viewable by a user;
said digital data channels of the video signal from the image generator each comprising a plurality of bit sets each corresponding to a respective location in the field of view and having a preset number of bits of digital data therein;
the bit sets of the first channel each representing a respective value of the simulated data variable at a first resolution, and the bit sets of the second channel each representing a respective value of the simulated data variable at a second resolution higher than the first resolution. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A system for simulating a display of values of a data variable in a field of view, said system comprising;
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an image generator comprising a computer having an output and transmitting thereon a video signal comprising at least two digital data channels; and
a display system connected with the output of the image generator and receiving said channels of digital data therefrom;
said display system including a combiner circuit receiving and processing the channels of data;
said display system further having a visual display device connected with the combiner circuit and displaying video imagery derived from said video signal in a field of pixels for viewing by a user;
said digital data channels of the video signal from the image generator each comprising a plurality of bit sets each corresponding to a respective location in the field of view and having a preset number of bits of digital data therein;
the bit sets of the first channel each representing a respective value of the data variable at a first resolution, and the bit sets of the second channel each representing a respective value of the data variable at a second resolution higher than the first resolution; and
wherein the combiner circuit compares a scaled value from each bit set in the first channel with a scaled value from the bit set of the other channel that corresponds to the same location in the field of view and selects based on said comparison a value to be transmitted to the visual display device. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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25. A system for simulation of a FLIR display, said system comprising
an image generator having an output and transmitting thereon a video signal comprising first, second and third digital video channels; - and
a display system connected with the output of the image generator and receiving said video signal therefrom, said display system including a combiner circuit receiving and processing the channels of said video signal and producing therefrom an output signal, and a visual display device having a field of pixels viewable by a user of the system, said visual device receiving the output signal from the combiner circuit and displaying video imagery derived from said signal in said field of pixels for viewing by the user;
each of said channels comprising a plurality of 8-bit sets of pixel data, each of the 8-bit sets corresponding to a respective pixel of the visual display device;
the bit sots of the first channel each representing a respective scaled FLIR intensity value in a first range of intensity values that is between a first minimum corresponding temperature value and a first maximum corresponding temperature value, the first minimum corresponding temperature value being below an ambient temperature value of the simulation and the first maximum corresponding temperature value being above the ambient temperature value being simulated;
the bit sets of the second channel each representing a respective scaled FLIR intensity value in a second range of intensity values that is narrower than said first range, said second range being between a second corresponding minimum temperature value that is below the ambient temperature value and a second corresponding maximum temperature value that is above the ambient temperature value; and
the bit sets of the third channel each representing a respective scaled FLIT intensity value in a third range of intensity values that is narrower than said second range, said third range being between a third corresponding minimum temperature value that is below the ambient temperature value and a third corresponding maximum temperature value that is above the ambient temperature value;
the combiner circuit, for each pixel of the display device, converting the scaled value from each corresponding bit sot in each of the channels to a re-scaled value scaled to a common scale of intensity values that allows comparison of values derived from the channels;
said combiner circuit selecting as a selected scaled value for the pixel the scaled value from the first channel if all three scaled values for the pixel are different, selecting as the selected scaled value for the pixel the scaled value of the second channel if the scaled value of the second channel is equal to the scaled value of the first channel but different from scaled value of the third channel, and selecting as the selected scaled value for the pixel the scaled value of the third channel if all the scaled values for the pixel are different; and
a gain control configured to be adjusted by the user and operatively associated with the display system, the display system receiving from said gain control an electrical indication of a desired gain level to be applied to the display, said display system deriving the output signal for the pixel based on said desired gain level and the selected scaled value. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
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28. A method of simulating a sensor system that displays values of a data variable representing a sensed radiation level over a field of view, said method comprising:
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determining in an image generator, for each of a group of locations in the field of view, a respective data value for the data variable based on a database of scene data in the image generator and on a mathematical model determining radiation from simulated objects based on defined parameters thereof, storing said data values in two groups of data fields in memory of the image generator, each of said data fields being a field of n bits and corresponding to a respective location in the field of view, each of the groups of data fields having associated therewith scaling parameters that define a respective resolution thereof and a range of radiation values that correspond to scaled values stored therein, said data values being stored in said data fields of the group of data fields in a form of n bits and derived by scaling said data values based on the respective scaling parameters of the group of the data field, outputting from the image processor a video output signal having at least two channels, each of said channels containing the data values of a respective group of data fields in the respective resolution, receiving said video output and scaling parameters in a display system, scaling the scaled data values to a common scale that allows comparison of values from one channel to values from the other channel, selecting a value from said data values on the common scale based on an assessment of the data being less likely to have been clamped in value by a range of a channel, and displaying the selected data value as an intensity on a display device. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A system for displaying a field of view to a user, said system comprising:
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a computerized image generator having an output configured to transmit a video signal having two or more video channels;
said image generator formulating a group of data values, each data value corresponding to a respective location in the field of view;
said image generator deriving from said data values first and second digital data signals and transmitting said first and second data signals as two video channels via said output;
said first and second data signals each including at least one screen image comprising a number of sets of bits each corresponding to a respective location in said field of view;
each set of bits defining a numerical value expressing the data value corresponding to said location in the field of view scaled relative to a respective range of possible data values separated by a respective incremental resolution step value for said range;
wherein the sets of bits of the screen image or images of the first data signal are all determined for a first range with a first resolution step value, and the sets of bits of the screen image or images of the second data signal are all determined for a second range with a second resolution step value that is smaller than said first resolution step value. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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Specification