The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 13, 1995
Filed:
Mar. 23, 1992
Allen K Lo, Diamond Bar, CA (US);
Mark D Skinas, deceased, late of Huntington Beach, CA (US);
William J Bangs, Fullerton, CA (US);
William J Bangs, Fullerton, CA (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
An automatic detection apparatus and method applies the Short and Toomey algorithmic processing procedure to a frequency and beam direction windowed and time segmented set of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) magnitude detected data, comprising time, frequency and beam direction data, to determine the presence or absence of narrowband lines indicative of target tracks. This is achieved by storing the time, frequency and beam direction data, and then processing this data using a predetermined three-dimensional maximum a posteriori procedure whereby individual target tracks associated with each beam direction are concurrently processed, and whereby transitions are made between adjacent beam directions in order to process target tracks having a maximum signal to noise ratio to provide for detection of a target. An output target track is generated by combining the high signal to noise ratio portions of the processed individual target tracks into a single output target track. The present invention extends the tracking capabilities that are obtained using the Short and Toomey processing procedure from two dimensions to three dimensions, and this added dimension provides spatial tracking in addition to spectral tracking. The spatial tracking is performed concurrently with the spectral tracking in an array processor.