L-3 Communications Corporation

The Singer Company

Raytheon Company

L3 Technologies, Inc.

Cae Usa, Inc.

James A Turner

Ronald George Hegg

Jonathan L Dugdale

Ashok A Sisodia

John R Trzeciak

John C Stubbart

Kevin P Cippant

Jonathan Gabel

Elwood B Baker

A display system comprises a screen having a concave spherical surface positioned so as to be visible to a user of the system. The screen comprises a plurality of kite-shaped screen elements supported adjacent one another so as to form that spherical surface. Each of the screen elements comprises a respective faceplate comprising optical fibers extending adjacent each other so as to transmit light therethrough between two opposing face surfaces. One of the face surfaces is a concave spherical display image output surface, and the other of the face surfaces is a substantially planar image input surface. The screen elements also each comprise a respective image panel having a field of pixels each transmitting light corresponding to serial images of said panel. The fibers of the faceplate receive the light of the pixels of the image panel and together transmit the light from the image panel coherently to its image output surface so that the images of the panel are displayed on the image output surface.

Display system and components

A display system is provided to surround a user with an out-the window scene. The system includes a screen structure that is a facetted back-projection dome made up of a polygonal polar top facet surrounded by trapezoidal facets angulated downward from it in an upper facet row. A middle row of facets extends angulated downward therefrom, and a lower row of trapezoidal facets extends down from them. Each facet has video projected thereon by a high definition projector, and to maximize resolution and efficiently use the projector output, the vertical height of each facet makes use of the full vertical field of pixels available from the associated projector. The facets are all tangent to a sphere about a design eyepoint of the dome. The projector resolutions and the size, position and material of the facets are such that the imagery visible on the inside of the dome on the facets is at resolution corresponding to a visual acuity of 20/50 or higher, preferably 20/20, and at or near eye-limiting resolution.

Display system for high-definition projectors

To overcome problems with vergence, a binocular head mounted display (HMD) is used in a simulator in which an out-the-window scene is displayed in real time on a screen arrangement. Imagery for the left and right eyes of the HMD is derived by generating a starting HMD image for a Cyclops viewpoint between the user's eves, and then rendering respective views for each eve from the position of the eye in a virtual 3D model of the screen arrangement, wherein the starting HMD image is frustum projected against the screen arrangement of the 3D model.

Simulated head mounted display system and method

A vehicle simulator having a projection system for projecting a generated scene and symbology onto a common viewing screen. Tracking apparatus is provided for providing position and/or angular orientation signals representative of the eye of a person viewing the projected scene and symbology. An image generation system is included for generating the scene and symbology for the projection system, such scene and symbology being generated as a function of the position and/or angular orientation signals provided by the tracking apparatus. Such symbology is representative of symbology produced by a head-up display. The image generation system generates the scene and symbology with characteristics which simulate vignetting and/or occulting effect characteristics of the head-up display. The OTW scene and symbology are projected onto a screen and are co-located while the image generator, base or data of the eye position of the user, produces the symbology to simulate the collimation, vignetting and occulting effects of the HUD optical type used in the vehicle that is simulated.

Vehicle simulator having head-up display

A system displays video to a user and has a display device with a field of pixels. It displays video to the user in the form of a series of discrete sequential frame images each made up of a first predetermined number of bit planes in which the pixels of the display are either off or have a color and intensity that is uniform over the field of pixels. The apparatus detects when a movement condition is present, such as rapid head movement or an object in the video crossing the display rapidly, in which condition the user's eye may tend to track across the display device at a rate at which perception of the video displayed may be reduced in quality, and it generates a condition-present signal when such a movement condition is detected. Responsive to generation of said condition-present signal, the apparatus causes the display device to display the frame images using fewer bit planes for each frame image than when said movement condition is not detected. Display with the original number of bit planes returns when the movement condition is over.

Dynamic display optimization method and system with image motion

A display apparatus for displaying projected images to a user comprises an enclosure with an aperture between the interior and exterior of the enclosure. A projector adjacent the aperture projects light through the aperture and against a screen surface to form an image that is visible to the user at a viewing station. A mask blocks the light from the projector proceeding to the eyepoint of the user. The method of the invention comprises projecting an image through the aperture onto the projection screen and blocking a portion of the light that is scattered from the last lens surface with the mask while permitting the image to proceed to the projection screen to be viewed.

Masked image projection system and method

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.

Apparatus and method for simulating sensor imagery

A vehicle simulation system has an image system for projecting a simulated out-the-window scene and symbology as produced by a head-up display onto a viewing screen. A dummy beamsplitting or combiner structure is positioned so that the user can view the scene with the head-up display symbology through it. A filtering structure is provided on the combiner structure to prevent the user from viewing the head-up display symbology outside the combiner structure.

Head-up display simulator system

An off-axis backscreen visual display system having an increased vertical field of view (FOV) is disclosed. The lower edge of the backscreen member in the display system is contoured in accordance with the structure of the aircraft and the observer's point of view. The contouring of the lower edge of the backscreen increases the upward FOV coverage without changing the eyepoint/display relationship.

Backscreen edge contouring for off-axis large field of view displays

An off-axis backscreen visual display system with rotating backscreen and projector assembly. The system includes a full color projector for projecting the image beam, and a backscreen which redirects the image beam from the projector onto a collimating mirror. The mirror in turn reflects the beam toward the observer eye point. The backscreen and projector are mechanically integrated together to form an integrated assembly which is mounted for rotation about a pivot point. The collimating mirror is oversized relative to the nominal beam size so as to present mirror surface to the beam redirected by the backscreen through a range of rotation of the integrated assembly. An actuator system rotates the integrated assembly about the pivot point to obtain increase vertical field of view. The backscreen can alternatively be fixed in position, with only the projector assembly rotating. The projector can include electronic image positioning capabilities, so that the active area for the image is located in a lower projector area or in an upper projector area, to provide a virtual rotational capability.

Rotating backscreen and/or projectors for off-axis large field of view

A simulator projected-image system includes a distortion-correcting circuit to modify flat-image data that is stored sequentially in a Random Access Memory by connecting a source of random address to obtain selected video data from the memory in a predetermined order and a circuit to combine the selected video data to form an image that is substantially free from distortion when projected on a curved screen.

Digital distortion-correcting circuit for projection a flat image on a

The disclosure describes a digital servo control circuit to actuate an analog servo motor smoothly from an actual present position to a new desired servo position in response to digital information from a computer. The control circuit described receives from a computer digital information representative of a new position desired at a predetermined velocity rate. Such information normally is pre-timed to correspond with a preselected timing rate in the digital computer. A position signal generator is responsive to such pre-timed digital information to generate a predetermined number of position signals intermediate of the pre-timed digital information to achieve the desired smooth operation of the servo motor.

Servo control circuit

This disclosure describes digital control circuit to actuate an analog servo motor in response to digital information from a computer. The control circuit is responsive to the timing signal (13) from the computer, and includes a circuit (12) to receive information from the computer indicative of a new servo position. A feedback circuit (15) receives information from the servo indicative of the actual present servo position. Information processed individually by each of these circuits then is connected into a computational network (14) in order to generate a properly timed digital output signal which, when converted in a suitable digital-to-analog converter (17), is able to drive a servo motor accurately.

Digital control circuit for an analog servo

Servo Control System (24) for positioning a load (35). A velocity drive signal (50), derived from a positional error signal, is provided by the outer loop (28) as the input to a velocity servo inner loop (26). The velocity drive signal is non-linear (48) and of the form V=.sqroot.2AD where A is the acceleration of the load and D is positional error (46).

Growing community of inventors

Binghamton, NY, United States of America

James A Turner