Projected imaged weapon training apparatus

• US 4,680,012 A
• Filed: 06/12/1985
• Issued: 07/14/1987
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/1984
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ferranti PLC Bridge House Park Road Gatley Cheadle Cheshire England
• Original Assignee: Ferranti Limited
• Inventors: Buick, James M., Morley, Robert A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pinkham, Richard C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NOT, DEFINED
• Application Number:
  US06/743,803
• Time in Patent Office: 762 Days
• Field of Search: 434/20, 434/21, 434/22, 434/44, 273/310-316
• US Class Current: 434/22
• CPC Class Codes: F41G 3/2627 Cooperating with a motion picture projector

Abstract

Apparatus (FIG. 1), for training in the rapid and accurate reaction to a situation confronting one or more trainees 12, 12'"'"' in an enclosed room 11, has one wall thereof formed by a screen portion 14 onto which an optical image is back-projected by projector 16. Each trainee'"'"'s weapon 22 has a light emitter 24 responsive to firing the gun (containing blanks) at the screen to simulate the projectile impact point by spot 26. A television camera adjacent the projector and viewing the rear of the screen receives the spot and relates the position of this within the camera field to datum points of the projected image, the datum points 36'"'"' being visible to the camera and not the trainee. The scoring is analyzed by projecting onto the screen recorded video images including both the spot 26 and the reflected projected image and a store 29'"'"', containing the positional relationships between datum points and target areas, may be used with image processor 28 to determine quantitative relationships between simulated impact point 26 and the target area. A plurality of trainees may use the system together, each being allotted a light emission time window, synchronized with the camera scan to discriminate between them.

Claims

1. Weapon training apparatus including a high optical transmission back-projection screen of high optical transmissivity;

image projection means operable to form a visible target image on the screen by back-projection, said image including one or more datum points;

means for changing the projected image;

weapon sighting means, directable at the front of the screen by a trainee in a training area, including a weapon discharge trigger mechanism and an optical radiation emitter responsive to operation of the trigger mechanism to direct optical radiation at the screen to impinge thereon in a spot indicative of a simulated projectile impact point;

a television camera, located on the same side of the screen as the projector and having a field of view substantially co-extensive with the image projected by the projector, operable to receive at least a part of the projected target image, reflected from the screen, and radiation forming said impact simulating spot, transmitted by the screen, simultaneously as a composite image; and

scoring analysis means comprising image processing means operable to determine from the camera video signal the positional relationship between the impact simulating spot and said datum points defined on the camera-viewed target scene, data storage means operable to store data pertaining to said positional relationship and review means including the screen and means to cause said projector to project onto the screen for viewing an image of said target scene including the impact simulating spot in the positional relationship therewith determined by the image processing means.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the review means includes means to project an image representing the impact simulating spot onto the projected target scene image.

3. Weapon training apparatus including a high optical transmission back-projection screen of high optical transmissivity;

image projection means operable to form a visible target image on the screen by back-projection, said image including one or more datum points;

means for changing the projected image;

weapon sighting means, directable at the front of the screen by a trainee in a training area, including a weapon discharge trigger mechanism and an optical radiation emitter responsive to operation of the trigger mechanism to direct optical radiation at the screen to impinge thereon in a spot indicative of a simulated projectile impact point;

a television camera, located on the same side of the screen as the projector and having a field of view substantially co-extensive with the image projected by the projector, operable to receive at least a part of the projected target image, reflected from the screen, and radiation forming said impact simulating spot, transmitted by the screen, simultaneously as a composite image; and

scoring analysis means comprising image processing means operable to determine from the camera video signal the positional relationship between the impact simulating spot and said datum points defined on the camera-viewed target scene, data storage means operable to store data pertaining to said positional relationship, image storage means comprising a video record device for producing a video signal representing the target scene and review means, including television display means, operable to generate on the television display means a visual composite image of the target scene, produced by the video record device, and the impact simulating spot.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 in which the video record device comprises a recording device arranged to receive and store signals produced by the camera viewing a projected image of the target scene in the absence of an impact simulating spot.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 in which the television display means comprises a projection television system.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 5 in which the projection television system is operable to project a television image onto said target screen.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 in which the review means is operable to modify the video signal representing the target scene image in accordance with the data of the image processing means to include in the displayed image a visible representation of each input simulating spot determined from the camera video image signal.

8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 5 in which the review means includes means to project an image representing the impact simulating spot onto the projected target scene image.

9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 in which the screen is arranged to have different areas visible to the trainee and camera, the area thereof visible to the trainee comprising that occupied by the projected target scene and the area thereof visible to the camera comprising that occupied by the projected target scene image and said datum points projected with the target scene image and disposed separate from, but adjacent to, the target scene and caused to be reflected to the camera with greater luminous intensity than the target scene image, and in which the image processing means includes means to process the camera video signal of said composite image to distinguish therein signal features attributable to said datum points of the reflected projected image as a function of their position in the camera image and signal features attributable to an impact simulating spot transmitted by the screen as a function of its position in the camera image.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 9 in which the juxtaposition of datum marks represents identification data relating to the target scene and said image processing means is operable to determine said identification data from the relative occurrence of said datum marks in the camera video signal.

11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 in which the image processing means includes means to process the camera video signal of said composite image to distinguish therein signal features attributable to datum points of the reflected projected image as a function of their position in the camera image and signal features attributable to an impact simulating spot transmitted by the screen as a function of its position in the camera image, and in which the scoring analysis means includes score determining means comprising score storage means, storing positional data relating the position of at least one target area of the target scene to projected datum points as a particular juxtaposition of datum points projected with that target scene image, and score processing means operable to determine from the image processing means the positional relationship between said juxtaposed datum points and thus the stored positional relationship between datum points and target area represented thereby, and from said stored positional relationship and the determined positional relationship between an impact simulating spot and the datum points the positional relationship between the impact simulating spot and a target area.

12. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 including a plurality of said weapon sighting means operable by a plurality of trainees at will and impact simulating spot source discrimination means operable to relate each of a plurality of impact simulating spots detected in relation to a target scene to appropriate ones of a plurality of weapon firings at the target scene, said source discrimination means including optical masking means, associated with each emitter, causing formation of an impact simulating spot on the screen having distinctive optical attributes characteristic of the emitter and the video signal of which is divisible by the image processing means into a number of portions the relationship between them being said emitter characteristic.

13. Apparatus as claimed in claim 12 in which the optical means is arranged to produce an impact simulating spot divided into a sequence of area portions, manifested as corresponding sequence of pulse signals in the video signal, the number of such pulse signals in the sequence being characteristic of the emitter.

14. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 including a plurality of said weapon sighting means, each operable by one of a plurality of trainees at will, and impact simulating spot source discrimination means operable to relate each of a plurality of impact simulating spots detected in relation to a target scene to appropriate ones of a plurality of weapon firings at the target scene, the source discrimination means comprising a signal receiver, associated with an optical radiation emitter of each sighting means, responsive to transmitted enabling signals to enable, for a predetermined period, radiation emission from the emitter upon trigger actuation by the trainee and a transmission system operable to transmit said enabling signals to said receiver in synchronism with the television camera field scanning such that the emitters are enabled in turn for at least one camera frame period at a time, and multiplexing means operable to multiplex successively formed television camera images in the scoring analysis means in accordance with the successive enabling of emitters.