Accurate Automation Corporation

David J Donovan

Robert M Pap

Timothy W Robinson

Richard E Saeks

Richard M Akita

Bradley D Colbert

Alianna J Maren

Kevin L Priddy

Bernard C Kersting

Karl Mathia

Melvin P Kocher

Charles W Glover

A vehicle imaging surveillance and recording system adapted to monitor conditions prevailing during the course of a trip and provided for this purpose cameras are placed in the control station of the vehicle and about the vehicle. At least two recording devices record the output of the cameras. One device records a thirty minute high resolution image. The second device records a two hour lower resolution image. Both devices compress the data that is to be recorded in storage. The output signals yielded from storage are fed into an on-board transmitter to modulate a carrier that is radiated from the vehicle and intercepted by an active communications satellite. These output signals are being transmitted only under certain conditions. One condition is to provide a switch under the control of a crew member in the control station of the vehicle. The other condition provides for automatically switching on the transmission to the satellite when certain parameters occur.

Vehicle internal image surveillance, recording and selective transmission to an active communications satellite

The invented apparatus fuses two or more sensor signals to generate a fused signal with an improved confidence of target existence and position. The invented apparatus includes gain, control and fusion units, and can also include an integration unit. The integration unit receives signals generated by two or more sensors, and generates integrated signals based on the sensor signals. The integration unit performs temporal and weighted spatial integration of the sensor signals, to generate respective sets of integrated signals supplied to the gain control and fusion units. The gain control unit uses a preprogrammed function to map the integrated signals to an output signal that is scaled to generate a gain signal supplied to the fusion unit. The fusion unit uses a preprogrammed function to map its received integrated signals and the gain signal, to a fused signal that is the output of the invented apparatus. The weighted spatial integration increases the fused signal's sensitivity to near detections and suppresses response to detections relatively distant in space and time, from a detection of interest. The gain control and fusion functions likewise suppress the fused signal's response to low-level signals, but enhances response to high-level signals. In addition, the gain signal is generated from signals integrated over broad limits so that, if a detection occurred near in space or time to a detection of interest, the gain signal will cause the fused signal to be more sensitive to the level of the detection of interest.

Sensor fusion apparatus and method

Growing community of inventors

Hixson, TN, United States of America

David J Donovan