Differentiating friend from foe and assessing threats in a soldier's head-mounted display

• US 7,263,206 B1
• Filed: 05/06/2003
• Issued: 08/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Primordial, Inc. (Polaris Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Randy L. Milbert
• Inventors: Milbert, Randy L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmed; Samir
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tabatabai; Abolfazl
• Application Number:
  US10/249,761
• Time in Patent Office: 1,575 Days
• Field of Search: 382/103, 382/107, 89/11.1, 340/995.21, 701/23, 701/26, 701/202, 701/205, 701/209, 701/210, 701/211, 701/301, 348/51, 348/52, 348/115, 348169-172, 348/208.14, 342/6, 342/45, 342/176, 345 7- 9, 345/32, 345/156, 345/157, 715/740, 715/744
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: F41A 17/08 for inhibiting firing in a specified direction, e.g. at a friendly person or at a protected area F41A27/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F41G 3/02 using an independent line of sight
• CPC Class Codes: F41G 3/16 Sighting devices adapted for indirect laying of fire
• CPC Class Codes: F41G 3/225 Helmet sighting systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/014 comprising information/image processing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for differentiating friendly and enemy units in a soldier'"'"'s head-mounted display and warning a soldier when an enemy unit gains line-of-sight access to his or her position. The method includes a Unit Identifier (100) for associating units in aerial imagery with soldiers on the battlefield, a Commander Presenter (102) for presenting the aerial imagery and unit positions to a commander, a Unit Annotator (104) for enabling commanders to identify unknown units, and a Soldier Presenter (106) for identifying units that appear in a soldier'"'"'s head-mounted display.

Claims

1. A method for differentiating friend from foe and assessing battlefield threats, said method comprising:

identifying objects detected in aerial image as friendly units or unknown units based on the reported positions of said friendly units;

allowing manual classification of said unknown units as friend, foe, or neutral;

identifying objects detected in scope video based on the positions of said friendly units and said unknown units as well as the position and orientation of the scope video camera; and

warning a soldier if said unknown units classified as foes have line-of-sight access to said positions of said friendly units.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting the positions of said friendly units and said unknown units in said aerial image.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying objects detected in scope video includes:

presenting the name or rank of said friendly units;

indicating the position of and direction to said friendly units and unknown units; and

indicating said classification of said unknown units.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising implementing said method with a computer readable medium including one or more computer readable instructions embedded on the computer readable medium and configured to cause one or more computer processors to perform the steps of said method.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising implementing said method with one or more hardware and software devices.

6. A system for differentiating friend from foe and assessing battlefield threats, said system comprising:

a unit identifier for identifying objects detected in aerial image as friendly units or unknown units based on the reported positions of said friendly units;

a unit annotator for allowing manual classification of said unknown units as friend, foe, or neutral; and

a soldier presenter for identifying objects detected in scope video based on the positions of said friendly units and said unknown units as well as the position and orientation of the scope video camera,

wherein said soldier presenter includes warning a soldier if said unknown units classified as foes have line-of-sight access to said positions of said friendly units.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a commander presenter for presenting the positions of said friendly units and said unknown units in said aerial image.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein said soldier presenter includes:

means for presenting the name or rank of said friendly units;

means for indicating the position of and direction to said friendly units and unknown units; and

means for indicating said classification of said unknown units.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein said system is implemented with one or more hardware and software devices.

10. A method of identifying a plurality of objects, said method comprising:

receiving the positions of a first subset of said objects;

receiving a ground image depicting a second subset of said objects;

receiving the position and orientation of the device that captured said ground image;

receiving the coordinates of objects in said second subset within said ground image;

determining the correspondence among objects in said first subset and said second subset;

determining a first set of angles between said device and objects in said first subset;

determining a second set of angles between said device and objects in said second subset; and

comparing said first set of angles and said second set of angles.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said objects are units on a battlefield, said first subset contains friendly units reporting their positions, and said device is a weapon-mounted video camera.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving an aerial image depicting a third subset of said units;

determining the correspondence among said friendly units and units in said third subset;

allowing manual classification of units in said third subset as friend, foe, or neutral; and

identifying said units in said ground image.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising implementing said method with a computer readable medium including one or more computer readable instructions embedded on the computer readable medium and configured to cause one or more computer processors to perform the steps of said method.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising implementing said method with one or more hardware and software devices.