Rockwell Collins, Inc.

Jeffrey D Russell

David W Jensen

Allen P Mass

John K Gee

James P Henderson

Tom C Rohr

Steven E Koenck

Travis S VanDerKamp

Martin J Steffensmeier

Daniel Y Chiew

Andrew J LeVake

Peter R Bellows

Martin Pauly

Sung J Kim

Mark J Nimmer

Bradley A Walker

An image processing system incorporates a distortion correction (DC) sub-system in order to quickly correct skewed images. The DC sub-system includes a buffer, a processor and a sparse matrix table (SMT). The buffer is sized according to an amount of distortion in an input image. Input image pixels from an input frame are buffered in the buffer, and other input image pixels from the same frame overwrite the buffered input image pixels, reducing latency of the DC sub-system. The SMT is dynamically configurable and provides mapping values for mapping output pixels to input pixels. The processor implements combinational logic, including multipliers, lookup tables and adders. The combinational logic interpolates flow control parameters, pixel coordinate values, and pixel intensity values. The distortion correction values are streamed to a display or provided to a subsequent image processing block for further processing.

Low-power and low-latency distortion correction for image processors

A microcoded processor that uses microinstructions to reduce power consumption utilizing low power consumption registers to store most recently retrieved data from a high power consumption control store; a control store in combination with an indirect register file to provide the micro-orders necessary for operation of the microcoded processor without extending the size of the microinstruction; and a microcode driven single clock cycle control to turn off circuitry when not needed.

Energy efficient processing device

A nested hierarchical plurality of microcoded compute engines where each successive compute engine is coupled to a source bus and a sink bus of another microcoded computed engine at a different hierarchical level, where one microcoded compute engine may be a replacement of a scratchpad memory or FIFO from a pre-existing design. A communication scheme for communicating between and within various hierarchical layers of microcoded compute engines and a piano roll of bitmapped barrier objects for synchronizing activities of various microcomputer engines.

Architecture for cooperating hierarchical microcoded compute engines

A present novel and non-trivial system, apparatus, and method for generating HUD image data from synthetic image data is disclosed. Based on a multi-channel pixel intensity data set generated by a synthetic vision system, a single-channel pixel intensity data set representative of a lighted solid image of terrain comprised of a plurality of intensities of one color may be generated. The single-channel pixel intensity image data set may be determined as a function of multi-channel pixel intensity data set and channel weighting, where channel weighting may be based on sky and/or terrain colors employed by an SVS. Based on the multi-channel pixel intensity data set, a three-dimensional perspective scene outside the aircraft may be presented to the pilot on a HUD combiner. Also, the multi-channel pixel intensity data set may be modified by using at least one chroma key, where such chroma key may be assigned to a specific multi-channel pixel intensity value.

System, module, and method for generating HUD image data from synthetic vision system image data

In some embodiments, a method for high-performance terrain rendering may include one or more of the following steps: (a) obtaining elevation data, (b) determining slope of a terrain surface, (c) selecting a shading model to apply to the terrain surface based upon the slope of the terrain surface, (d) determining if a vehicle's heading has changed, and (e) aligning the shading model index based upon current heading.

Dynamic light shading in terrain rendering applications

Presently disclosed are a method and apparatus for generating graphics in a protected manner by establishing a user graphics partition while in an executive context. Once the user context is established, an operating mode is switched to the user context and then executing a user graphics program while in the user context. The operating mode then reverts to the executive context when the user context expires.

Method and apparatus for protected graphics generation

Techniques and systems for driving multiple tiled displays from a single digital video source can include a plurality of displays arranged in tiled fashion to form a tiled display, a plurality of display drivers corresponding to the plurality of displays, and a video receiver board coupled to the plurality of display drivers via a communication bus. The video receiver board communicates streams of pixel information to the plurality of display drivers.

Growing community of inventors

Marion, IA, United States of America

Jeffrey D Russell