TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Information Systems, Sensors

OBJECTIVE: Enable real time, geo-specific texture application of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data of large urban environments. Achieve a constantly-updated, photo-realistic, varied sensor modeling of large urban areas for training and mission rehearsal.

DESCRIPTION: Current flight simulators use models of buildings in redundant "geo-typical" textures in an effort to represent the large numbers of buildings found in dense urban areas. As a direct result simulations today lack the details specific to actual buildings and changes to those buildings as battles occur. The net result is simulations still lack the realism needed for accurate mission rehearsals and training for specific targets as they appear with varied sensors. As an example, today's state of the art systems only have the capability to render approximately 500 buildings with geo-specific texturing - while large urban environments like New York City or Baghdad require over 100,000 buildings to yield a realistic simulation.

Photo-realistic terrestrial and oblique aerial cameras can provide high resolution images of every geo-specific building surface under a variety of sensors. This data, coupled with advances in graphics processing units (GPU) resulting in 12 bit texture, cannot be processed by modern day systems. If this imagery could be ported into flight simulators, realism would increase markedly within the targeted areas and could be kept current with the dynamic changes in the real world.

Programs such as Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth "Bird's Eye" make static satellite and aerial imagery mapping only, those programs do not provide the dynamic, interactive, geo-specific, three dimensional, multi-sensor imagery needed for military simulation. Innovations are needed as increasing volumes of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data become available. Previous work related to high dynamic range sensor simulation, addressed physics based modeling but not the generation of source data in a form that adequately drives those models. Efforts that are currently ongoing which are attempting to integrate source data into sensor imagery to support military simulation require inordinate amounts of skilled manual labor.

The developed technology would have application to fixed and rotary wing aircraft, and would be of use in ground vehicle simulators by providing mission rehearsals in photo-realistic urban areas. Only with these innovations will a larger Dynamic Range for higher fidelity sensors be supportable.

PHASE I: Demonstrate feasibility of proposed approaches capable of meeting the characteristics described above. Address the ability to integrate and/or simulate geo-specific ISR urban imagery into existing flight simulators. Proposed approaches should minimize the number of state changes for the GPU in order to optimize performance and maintain equivalency of a real-time (60hz) frame rate.

PHASE II: Develop, integrate, and demonstrate a prototype system that assimilates thousands of urban models with high-resolution building specific texture as they appear with varied sensors. Assess the benefits of the new visual rendering under several sensor conditions. The prototype should be compatible with real-time training simulation.

PHASE III: Commercialize the system and apply to a complex training simulator.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The developed technology can be applied to commercial flight simulators and entertainment markets. It has application to fixed and rotary wing aircraft, unmanned aircraft, and any simulated entity that has highly dynamic motion on and above a real-world urban area.

REFERENCES:

1. Ephanov A. and Coleman C. "Virtual Texture: A Large Area Raster Resource for the GPU." Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) 2006.

2. Tsai, F. & Lin, H. -C. (2007). "Polygon-based texture mapping for cyber city 3D building models." International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 21 (9), 965-981

3. Nayak, Shailesh. "ISPRS TC IV: Geo-databases and Digital Mapping - Trends and Challenges." ISPRS VOL 10, 18-20. http://www.isprs.org/publications/highlights/highlights0605/13HL0605Society.pdf

KEYWORDS: Urban Simulation; ISR; Damage Assessment; Texture; Simulation; Sensor; Targeting Questions may also be submitted through DoD SBIR/STTR SITIS website.