A method for navigation and updating of navigation for aircraft uses range image processing and a reference store, segmentizing the range image data are segmentized in order to obtain a particular pattern of type features for purposes of classifying particular types of objects across which the craft flies; extracting particular signature features including localized elevational jumps and determining the position of the craft by correlating a plurality of features and their spatial orientation to each other as extracted with corresponding stored reference information in order to provide a maximum fit that is indicative of deviation of the flight from a flight path as identified by the reference information.
Radar coverage maps having blockage, coverage and clutter features available for ease of interpretation are provided using terrain data to establish such features in data sets. The data sets provide a basis for the modified display. Multiple tilts of the radar scan may be represented. Multiple radar zones may be overlapped to provide a mosaic of a region showing areas of no coverage despite overlap.
The present invention relates to data mapping and involves the mapping of at least one feature from one data set to a corresponding feature in a second data set. Individual points of the features are initially mapped and an transformation for mapping the entire feature is derived from the individual mappings. The feature mapping may be used to enhance vehicle navigation, in feature tracking algorithms, and in image processing systems.
An image qualification method. A motion detection method. An optical navigation sensor. Image qualification, requiring only a single image frame to determine if an image frame is qualified, proceeds in real time. On the basis of the image qualification method, a motion detection method that prevents erroneous flickers is also provided for use in an optical navigation sensor.
Shipboard gravity data are currently recorded with one shipboard gravity meter. Gravity data are tied to the international gravity datum when the boat docks about every 30 days. The accuracy of these data is about 0.5 milligals and not sufficiently accurate for detailed quantitative interpretation. It is possible to increase the accuracy of shipboard gravity data twofold by using the procedure we have described. A stable boat with precision navigation and water depth soundings is necessary. Two gravity meters are calibrated to read the same values and times. These are placed near the center of the boat with one meter facing forward and one facing backward for plus and minus cross coupling, or simultaneous accelerations in different directions. Integration of the gravity recordings cancels random noise. This innovation increases the accuracy to 0.35 milligals. Shipboard gravity data are tied to a coarser grid of still gravity readings tied to the international gravity datum at land locations. The boat is stopped and still gravity readings are recorded at sea, forming the coarse grid of data. The still readings are recorded in loops combined with continuous base gravity recordings on land for diurnal control. The accuracy of the still gravity values is about 0.15 milligals. The shipboard gravity data are tied to the still gravity data grid at time intervals of 30 minutes versus the normal 30 days. The resulting gravity data are accurate to about 0.25 milligals and adequate for detailed studies.
A method of and a system for scanning a scene for the purpose of classifying a plurality of moving objects located in the scene and having an average distance between them, including the steps of performing a sweep of the scene, during the sweep, producing a multiplicity of detections of at least one portion of the scene at a rate such that a distance traveled by the moving objects between detections is small with respect to the average distance, and calculating, from the multiple detections, two-dimensional motion information for at least some of the moving objects.
