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:
Nov. 26, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 19, 2000
Mary D. O'Neill, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
William H. Wellman, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Raytheon Company, Lexington, MA (US);
Abstract
A method and system of time-to-intercept determination for a radiation source using passively-sensed irradiance data. The invention provides a plurality of noise reduction features to reduce the noise present in the data and improve the accuracy of the time-to-intercept computation. The method includes reducing data noise by defining an acceptable noise level and eliminating any excessively noisy data from the time-to-intercept computation. The method further includes constantly updating the time-to-intercept computation by using irradiance values that are advanced in time. Other features of the present invention includes averaging of irradiance values over a time interval, filtering of the irradiance data received by the method, and triggering at a predetermined time-to-intercept. The invention also includes a time-to-intercept system and processor implementing the above method.