DE3204134C2 - Device for generating a monitor image as any partial section from a large image - Google Patents

Abstract

A device is specified for generating a monitor image as an arbitrary partial section from a large image stored in a mass memory, whereby adjacent individual images are loaded into a fast-access intermediate memory consisting of individual video image memories. A laser image plate is provided as a mass storage device and a process computer is provided which, when the partial section is shifted per TV cycle, determines the shifting direction of the partial section and, depending on the shifting direction, the corresponding video image memory of the intermediate memory for erasing and reloading by the laser Image disk releases. Depending on the direction of movement, the reloading can affect one or more video image memories in the intermediate memory. An alternative solution provides for several mass storage devices storing the same large image, the addressing of which is changed as a function of the ascertained shifting direction of the partial section. In this case, there is no need for a buffer.

Description

The present invention relates to a device according to the preamble of claim 1. Such a device The device is used in particular in devices for training a combat situation, with the monitor is arranged, for example, in the field of view of directional optics

From DE-PS 28 03 101 a method and a device for generating a monitor image of a Large image known, the large image being broken down into individual partial images by means of several cameras, the content of which corresponds to that of a single TV picture Any part of the large picture, which is thus composed of parts of several individual images, can by special circuitry Measures are generated. The selection of the partial section takes place here, for example, with Directional handles coupled address generators, via which the corresponding parts of individual images can be called up and accessed the partial section can be assembled.

Instead of storing the individual images by a camera and an associated image section, according to DE-OS 29 19 047 the individual images also digitally in a mass storage medium of any storage medium can be saved. Such a solution has the advantage that in the image displayed on the monitor According to the addressed partial section, also silhouettes or images of certain objects, such as beis For example, moving targets into which the image content can be cut.

Rolling in the aforementioned known devices use is made of digital image memories, with the formation of a partial section

ίο specific formwork technology from several individual images Measures are required, the use of conventional computer memories is already in DE-OS 31 33 866 has been proposed for storing a background image. It was also suggested there, the background image information as well as the digitally stored information about a target in the To provide the background with a distance information, so that there are undercuts of the target with visualize the terrain on the monitor.

With the method according to this older proposal, the visual simulation for optical observation devices with any magnifications and fields of view can in principle be implemented; However, there are considerable demands on the storage capacity, which is determined by the size of the panorama to be displayed, ie the entire azimuth and elevation range to be displayed and the size of the field of view, which will be explained below
If, in the interest of the best possible resolution of the image in the observation device, one chooses the usually circular field of view equal to the height of the monitor, the required storage capacity for the entire panorama can be calculated as a multiple of the storage capacity for a monitor image given the total azimuth and elevation range:

Z- A-E

In these equations:

Za = number of image memories in azimuth

Ze = number of image memories in elevation

so Z = total number of image memories required

S = field of view of the observation device

A = azimuth range of the panorama to be displayed

E = elevation area of the panorama to be displayed

ramas

The factor 3/4 occurring in the equations is given by the typical aspect ratio of television monitors, the height of which is 75% of the width
For example, if you want to sweep a panorama with an azimuth angle of .A = 120 ° and an elevation angle of E = 30 ° with an observation device with a field of view of 10 °, you need:

120 °

9 azimuth image memory

30 °

= 3 elevation image memories

Z = 27 image memory

With a typical resolution of a monitor image with 600 lines of 800 pixels, each image memory must have a capacity of 480,000 memory locations, With a word length of 8 bits (1 byte) per memory location, this results in a capacity of 480 K bytes

It can be seen from equation (3) that even with a normal panorama size and normal fields of view Panoramic memories with considerable capacity are required, which leads to corresponding costs Less favorable conditions arise if, for example, the observation device has two or even more Switchable magnifications and thus fields of view are available, for example 8 or 16 times Magnification with fields of view of 5 ° or 2.5 °, so with otherwise the same panorama section are in accordance with Equation (3) Panoramic memory with one capacity

432 images

108 images

necessary.

Computer memories with such a high capacity are, however, economical for the present application no longer portable. In addition, high demands would be placed on such computer memories the access speed, since with the usual television standard of 25 frames per second each the entire content of an image must be available in 40 ms, which is a memory requirement for a Image of 480 K bytes already leads to a data transfer rate of 12 M bytes per second

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a device according to DE-OS 29 19 047 in the Way to improve that using a relatively inexpensive mass storage device the access problems can be easily mastered. This object is achieved by what is characterized in the claims Invention.

According to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a laser optical disk memory is used as the mass storage device is used, which is relatively inexpensive and currently has a storage capacity of up to 54,000 Has television pictures, and there are individual pictures from this disk storage in a buffer memory Panorama memory is loaded with quick access, or from several digital video image memories consists. If the addressing changes and the A process computer determines the direction of movement of a partial section from several individual images and loads them out individual video image memories of the panorama memory according to the video disk memory, whereby in this video image memory the image information presumably required due to the shift is loaded.

According to a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the panorama buffer is omitted and there are several laser disk storage units for this instead of the one optical disk storage, all of which are the same · Large image storage. Again If the addressing is changed, the process computer calculates the shifting direction of the multiple Individual images of composite partial excerpts aui the large image and addresses corresponding individual images in each laser image disk memory.

In the two enclosed figures, two different solutions to the same task are shown, wherein the solution according to FIG. 1 from a buffer consisting of several video image memories

ίο makes use and where according to F i g. 2 access is made directly to several mass storage devices. The invention is described in more detail below with the aid of these two figures.
According to FIG. 1 provides a directional device 100, not shown with their coupled Adreßgeber addresses to a process computer 120. The process computer 120 then controls, for example, via a controller 140, an access electronics 160 so that the contents B of the heavily bordered video image memory 5 after conversion by a digital- / Video converter 180 on a TV monitor 200 reaches the B: v position. The optics, not shown, are aligned with the monitor 200 and capture an image section corresponding to the circular field of view 5. The video image memory 5 forms part of a panorama image memory 220 with fast access, which has a capacity for 9 individual television images, for example.As a rule, these are separate digital video image memories 1 to 9, which can be arranged in any way and digitally save individual images that are composed of a panorama or a section of it Form a panorama.

The panoramic image memory 220 is loaded from a laser image disk memory 240 under the control of the process computer 120 , certain video image memories 11 to 9 being enabled via a controller 260 and whole individual images being reloaded into the respectively addressed video image memories 1 to 9 .
In the TV cycle of 40 ms, the process computer 120 is fed with further addresses from the straightening device 100 , from which it calculates a change in the image information to be displayed. It is assumed, for example, that after 40 ms the image content B ' shown in broken lines is to be displayed. This image content B' forms a section of the four video image memories 5, 6, 8 and 9, which each store individual adjacent television images. It can be seen that when the image section is shifted, the video image memories I to 4 and 7 are no longer involved in the image display and are thus free for new image content. The process computer 120 then uses a control command to cause the laser image disk storage 240 to output: 5 new television pictures 10 to 14 and it gives over; the controller 260 frees the image memories 1 to 4 and 7 of the panorama memory 220 for loading with this image information. If, for example, the shift of the image section B 'takes place exactly in the diagonally directed image diagonal or exactly in the horizontal or vertical direction, this is also recognized by the process computer 120 and the video image memory can be reloaded onto the television images J1 to 13 or 10 or 14 are limited.

It can be seen that the reloading of five pictures represents the worst case, which is the case with a TV clock of 40 ms leads to a cycle time of 200 ms. During this time, the original image excerpt may maximally be by one screen width in the horizontal direction or

5

shifted by one screen height in the vertical direction and 240 ⁹ and the process computer 120 commands a change, since otherwise the image memory is not yet fully loaded. 24O ¹ to 24O ⁴ and 240 ⁷ , these frames being sent to the

This requirement results in a motion picture that borders individual images 5, 6, 8 and 9 on the right and below, speed of 5 as shown in FIG. 1 is shown. A deletion of single

pictures are not done here.

_4_ S AS It is obvious that one of the FIGS.

^Ya " 3 '57"" \ 5T and 2 combined device can be used, the multiple laser disk storage in the azimuth direction and from io and a buffer 220 used.

In all the exemplary embodiments, the number of

_ 5 turned laser disk storage and video image

^E ~ 5T memory can be freely selected in the buffer and the

described arrangements in which this number with in the direction of elevation. 15 are only to be regarded as examples.

In these equations:

For this purpose 2 sheets of drawings Va = azimuth movement speed

S - field of view

T = cycle time (TV cycle = 40 ms)

Inserting the cycle time into the above equations results in a maximum movement speed of:

Κλ = 6.6 S per second Vf = 5 S per second

30th

However, these values are so high that details can be obtained by the operator at the observation optics can no longer be perceived, d. H. the theoretically resulting maximum movement speeds are far greater than they are for normal Observation processes on training devices with such visual simulation are required.

The high storage capacity of the laser image storage disk allows several to be saved Panoramas in day and thermal image version. The time that is required to use the panoramic image buffer when switching between two magnifications or when Reloading switching from day image to thermal image is significantly below that for real switching in Original equipment took time

The in F i g. The device shown in FIG. 2 differs from the device according to FIG. 1 in that the intermediate memory 220, which consists of several video image memories, is no longer necessary and several laser image disk memories 240 'to 24O ⁹ are arranged instead. Each laser image disk memory 240 'to 24O ⁹ stores the same large image, consisting, for example, of 54,000 contiguous individual images. The process computer 120 addresses the laser image disk storage based on the address output by the straightening device 100 in such a way that, for example, three horizontally adjoining individual images ^{in the memories 240 'and 24O 3,} three underlying individual images ^{in the memories 240 4} to 24O ^{6 and in the} Save 240 ⁷ to 24O ⁹ three single images below that are addressed again. If the image content is B according to FIG. 1, only the laser image disk storage 240 ^{s is} read out via the controller 140 by the access electronics 160 and, after conversion in the digital / video converter 180, is displayed on the monitor 200 The access electronics 160 link the individual images in the memories 240 ⁵ , 260 ⁶ , 24O ⁸

Claims (4)

Patent claims: 1. Device for generating a monitor image as any image section from one in one Large image stored in a mass storage device, with several video image memories that can be loaded from the mass storage device for recording adjacent partial images from which the image section is formed is, characterized in that a laser image disk (240) as a video mass storage device is used and that when the image section is shifted per image duration, the shifting direction is determined and depending on the direction of displacement in the video image memories (220; 1 to 9) stored partial images are deleted, which due to the recognized shift direction are no longer captured by the image section during the following image duration and therefore the participants newly recorded during the next image duration in the deleted video image memory to be lulled, 2. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized by one of the address signals of a straightening device (100) acted upon process computer (120) for controlling the laser image plate (240) and for Release of individual video image memories (220; 1 to 9). 3. Apparatus according to claim 2, characterized by one controlled by the process computer (120) Access electronics (140, 160) for addressing and reading out the video image memory (220; 1 to 9). 4. The device for generating a monitor image as any image section from a map stored in a mass memory large screen, characterized by the Anmdiuing more, the same large image-storing Last.-optical disk memory (24O ¹ to 240 *), and means (120) for determining the displacement direction of the Image excerpt per image duration and change in the addressing of the individual laser image plate memory depending on the determined shift direction.