1. A tracking system including: a device having means providing a surface on which light from a predetermined optical field may be focused, said means emitting electrons at each point of said surface in accordance with the intensity of light impinging thereon, an anode, and means for focusing electrons emitted from a small area of said surface on said anode; moving means for continuously changing in a predetermined manner the position of said small area of said surface from which emitted electrons are focussed on said anode; and means and operatively associated with last mentioned means responsive to the intensity of the emitted electrons focussed on said anode for causing the position of said small area to be within a large area of said surface on which impinges light of an intensity different than that of the light impinging on areas of said surface about said large area by causing said moving means to move the position of said small area back into said large area and away from an edge of said large area when said small area tends to move past an edge of said large area.
A method for rejecting inaccurate subimages is disclosed for subimages used to track an aimpoint. The difference between the actual location of each subimage and the location of the subimage based on an estimated aimpoint is compared to a threshold value. The subimage is discarded if the difference exceeds the threshold value. The aimpoint may then be reestimated using the revised set of subimages.
A method is disclosed for tracking an aimpoint with a set of arbitrarily related subimages. A dimensional relationship between the subimages and the aimpoint is initially determined and saved for later calculations. Subsequently, at least one of the subimages is reacquired. The aimpoint at the subsequent time is then determined using the later acquired subimages and the saved dimensional relationship.
A method for tracking an aimpoint with arbitrary subimages as described. The method comprises the steps of acquiring an aimpoint (50) on a target and a set of subimages (80) arbitrarily associated with the aimpoint by a sensor in a field of view. For a first time, the dimensionality of each subimage (82) and a normalized distance (54) from each subimage to the aimpoint are determined. For a second time, at least one of the subimages is reacquired (56) and the subsequent location of the aimpoint is estimated (58) based on the subsequent location of the subimages, on the normalized distances, and, where a subimage is one-dimensional, on a maximum eigenvector associated with the subimage.
In a method for guiding a missile by illuminating the target by means of a laser and tracking the target with a sensor system carried by the missile, the step of illuminating is carried out to illuminate the target by means of the laser for a short period of time, and the step of tracking is carried out with the aid of an electronic optical sensor by causing the sensor to sense the laser light reflected from the target and then locking the sensor onto the target region from which such reflection took place.
The invention pertains mainly to a method and a device for the display of targets and/or target positions using the data acquisition means of a weapons system. The device of the present invention can be used to display the target or the direction of the target acquired by missile homing heads. This data comes as a complement, and other data on the position of the target is used to ascertain that the homing head is properly locked on as well as to supplement any lack of information caused, for example, by a breakdown in the display systems. The invention can be applied mainly to the building of anti-aircraft defense launching platform or anti-aircraft and anti-tank launching platform.
