WO1998049514A2

WO1998049514A2 - System and method for enabling digital pursuit of natural and artificial targets

Info

Publication number: WO1998049514A2
Application number: PCT/US1998/007793
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ronald F. Strich
Original assignee: Glynn Shannon, Llc
Priority date: 1997-04-29
Filing date: 1998-04-21
Publication date: 1998-11-05
Also published as: WO1998049514A3; AU7131498A

Abstract

A digital pursuit instrument simulates a weapon used for hunting. Images of a target are captured and a calculation made as to where projectiles from a simulated weapon would have hit, had they been actually fired. The digital pursuit instrument can be reprogrammed to simulate different weapons and ammunition. Artificial targets can interact with the digital pursuit instrument to simulate different weapons and ammunition. Artificial targets can interact with the digital pursuit instrument to simulate action experienced when an animal is spooked. Image processing permits automatic scoring of a simulated shot. Non-lethal hunting competitions can be conducted year round with automatic scoring of shots. Images captured, together with location information, can provide reliable game management information.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENABLING DIGITAL PURSUIT OF NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL TARGETS

Background of the Invention

Hunting is a pastime in which a significant portion of the population participates. Hunting is regulated by state governments to achieve a number of wildlife management objectives including the prevention of extermination of particular species. This is principally done by establishing hunting seasons of longer or shorter duration and by establishing license limits to prevent over hunting of a particular area. The cost of managing wildlife as an activity is offset by hunting license revenues .

A side effect of the hunting seasons established by state regulatory agencies is that certain communities have a heavy influx of hunters and other tourists during the hunting season. However, during the remainder of the year, considerably fewer tourist visit.

A variety of non-lethal alternatives to hunting with real weapons are known. In one form, paint pellet guns are utilized to shoot a paint pellet projectile which will not seriously injure a person hit by such a projectile. Such weapons permit combat games to be simulated in which, instead of being killed, a person is splattered with paint, a much preferable alternative.

Combat games can also be played utilizing low-powered laser beams and laser detection apparatus. A participant wears a laser detector which, when illuminated with a laser beam from an opponent's weapon will set off an indication that the person has been hit by the opponent's weapon and, depending on the degree of hit, effectively removed from the combat simulation. Problems

Several problems have arisen in the prior art. While a limited hunting season is in fact effective to control the harvest of a particular type of animal, hunters would enjoy the hunting sport year-round. Merchants and communities find their facilities strained during hunting season and vacant at other times. Further, some people who enjoy the outdoors and part of the hunting experience are nevertheless adverse to shooting animals. As environmental sensitivity increases, and as animal rights activists impact attitudes, state agencies have seen a reduction in the revenues received from hunting licenses. As a result, the agencies have reduced funds for managing and developing wildlife resources for the state. For state agencies attempting to manage animal population, there is a certain difficulty in counting the population of animals of a certain kind in a given area.

The use of non-lethal weapons have their problems too. The use of paint pellet guns can bruise a person when he is hit by a paint pellet. Further, if protective gear is worn, it is both bulky and not very comfortable. Similarly, eye protection is desirable in almost any environment in which a laser may be directed toward a human eye .

Summary of the Invention

The invention is directed toward overcoming the problems of the prior art by permitting the sport of hunting to be practiced in a non-lethal and year-round way. A digital pursuit instrument (DPI) is utilized to simulate a weapon used for hunting. Images of a target, natural or artificial, are captured and a calculation made as to where a bullet or pellet zone from a shotgun would impact upon the target. The calculation is specific to a particular type of weapon being simulated and to a particular type of ammunition or load utilized in that weapon. Images captured are automatically scored utilizing image processing techniques and the point of impact marked on the image if desired.

The invention also permits the use of artificial targets, the position of which can be changed during the simulation and response to detection of a digital pursuit instrument in the proximity. In short, the artificial target can be "spooked" and appear to run just like a real animal . The invention relates to apparatus for capturing images of a target, including an imaging device capturing images and displaying them to a user, a location device, a rangefinder, and a control device connected to the imaging device, the location device and the rangefinder for storing information about location of the apparatus and range from the apparatus to a target together with an image of said target in response to a user control signal .

The invention is also related to a target, including a memory, a telemetry transceiver, and a control element; connected to the memory and the telemetry transceiver for changing target behavior based on information received over said telemetry transceiver.

The invention also relates to apparatus for scoring images of a target stored on a removable memory medium, including a processor, a memory medium, a reader for reading from the removable memory medium, images of said target, a bus connecting the processor, the memory and the reader; and one or more databases stored on the memory medium storing information about one or more weapon types and ammunition types suitable for use with each weapon type or storing images of a particular class of target from different perspective views.

The invention also relates to a plurality of methods useable with or independently of the apparatus . Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, wherein only the preferred embodiment of the invention is shown and described, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated of carrying out the invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawing and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.

Brief Description of Drawings

Figure 1 is a high level block diagram of a digital pursuit instrument (DPI) in accordance with the invention. Figure 2 is an illustration of how a DPI can be packaged to simulate a real weapon.

Figure 3 is an illustration of how a DPI can be packaged to simulate a video recorder. Figure 4 is a flow chart of exemplary trigger functionality which can be used in accordance with the invention.

Figure 5 is an exemplary layout of information on a memory medium loaded into a DPI . Figure 6 is a block diagram of an architecture for an exemplary DPI in accordance with the invention.

Figure 7 is block diagram of the video sub-system of Figure 6.

Figure 8 is a representation of an exemplary view provided to a user by a DPI.

Figure 9 is a representation of exemplary menu selections provided by selecting the menu option of Figure 8.

Figures lOA-1 and 10A-2 are side and end views respectively of a two dimensional artificial target which can be equipped with inter-active capabilities giving the appearance of intelligence in accordance with the invention.

Figure 10B is an illustration of an artificial three dimensional target which can be equipped with inter-active capabilities giving the appearance of intelligence in accordance with the invention. Figure 11 is a block diagram of an exemplary architecture for an intelligent target in accordance with invention.

Figure 12 is a flow chart of a representative process by which an intelligent target interacts with a DPI .

Figure 13 is a block diagram of an exemplary architecture for a scoring computer in accordance with the invention.

Figure 14 is an exemplary layout of a weapon/ammunition scoring data base in accordance with the invention.

Figure 15 is a exemplary layout of a reference image library for a natural target.

Figure 16 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for automatic scoring of shots taken using a DPI.

Figure 17 is an illustration used to explain the determination of a hit point of a particular shot.

Figure 18A is a flow chart of an exemplary process used for determining perspective view to be used for scoring and for estimating animal size.

Figure 18B is a flow chart of an exemplary process used for determining perspective view to be used for scoring and for providing an alternative approach to estimating animal size. Figure 19 is an illustration of how a view of a target and it's kill zone is used for scoring.

Figure 20 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for determining a hit point with respect to the target acquisition point. Figure 21 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for sighting in a DPI.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Figure 1 is high level block diagram of digital pursuit instrument (DPI) in accordance with the invention.

The system is comprised with a number of component parts or sub-systems. An optics sub-system (100) is an optics system used for capturing images of the target. The optical image is captured using a lens (e.g. a zoom lens) and a digital camera and digital images of the optical image are stored and displayed using display subsystem (120) . A laser (130) is utilized as part of a laser range finding sub-system (140) to measure the distance from the DPI to the target with some precision. A global positioning satellite sub-system (150) is utilized to determine the location of the DPI at the time the shot is taken. A data acquisition and control sub- system (160) is utilized for data acquisition and for control of various sub-systems as described more hereinafter.

The digital pursuit instrument is capable of being implemented in a variety of forms ranging from a very high-end instrument to a very low-end instrument depending upon a particular application. For example, images captured by the imaging sub-system may be stored as a single image on a flash memory card or might be captured as part of a video cassette recorder included within the sub-system in a higher-end implementation. At the high- end, it might be desirable to capture video separately or to capture it together with the associated sounds.

Although the data acquisition and control sub-system (160) and GPS sub-system (150) are shown with separate antennas, with appropriate engineering, they both maybe serviced by a single antenna which can accommodate both portions of the electromagnetic spectrum utilized. The imaging sub-system includes the ability to super impose text and other information as overlays on the image captured through the optics sub-system. The data acquisition and control subsystem (160) includes facilities for storing in memory various input parameters specifying the type of weapon and ammunition being simulated as well as for storing images captured by a low- end implementation DPI.

The individual modules shown in Figure 1 can for the most part be replaced individually with commercial packages from different manufacturers. Figure 2 is an illustration of how a DPI can be packaged to simulate a real weapon. This packaging includes a barrel (200) , a stock (260) , and triggering mechanism (230) arranged in a fashion customary in the weapons industry to simulate either a rifle or a shotgun. An imaging scope (210) is mounted on the simulated weapon in the manner usually employed. The imaging scope may include a zoom lens (211) and a digital camera (212) for capturing the optical images from the scope. A digital display (213) is included in the scope assembly so that a digitally captured image may be simultaneously displayed to a viewer through an eye piece (214) .

The laser and laser detection facility is integrated in item (220) shown in Figure 2. It may desirable to mount the laser range finding system within the simulated barrel (200) or on the scope (210) . The particular packaging is not as important as that a rangefinder system is there to determine accurately the distance to the target . The stock (260) is shown to include a chamber (240) internally in which electronics and other equipment, such as a video recorder or digital camera, associated with the DPI integration into a simulated weapon environment is stored. The power source is also included in the stock of the weapon. A removable memory medium (250) , such as a flash card, is designed to be inserted into a reader/writer within the electronics to customize the characteristics of the weapon being simulated to those of a real weapon and to capture the information for processing by a scoring device. The trigger mechanism (230) , as discussed more hereinafter is designed to activate different functionality as the triggering mechanism is progressively squeezed.

Figure 3 is an illustration of how a DPI can be packaged, either together with or to simulate a video recorder. As described more hereinafter, much of the DPI system includes functionality found in a video cassette recorder. Thus, the DPI functionality could be integrated into a video cassette recorder environment with minimal change. For example, the video recorder (300) is shown with a zoom lens 310. A pistol grip (320) with triggering mechanism is utilized in the same manner as when the DPI is packaged in a simulated weapon environment. Figure 4 is a flow chart of exemplary trigger functionality which can be utilized in accordance with the invention. As the trigger mechanism is squeezed by an amount which exceeds a first threshold (400) an autofocus routine is activated (410) and, if the particular DPI implementation is equipped with a video cassette recorder or digital video disk, the recorder will be started (420) . As the trigger mechanism is squeezed past the first threshold to threshold 2 (430) , a frame grabber is activated (440) and an image of the target together with its overlays (450) is stored. In addition, the parameters, described hereinafter, associated with the image are stored in a data format so that they can be retrieved and processed (460) . As long as the trigger mechanism remains at a position in which is beyond the first threshold, the video cassette recorder will continue to run capturing the images within its field of view. The parameters associated with the capture of the image are stored only when a simulated "shot" is taken at the target . Figure 5 is an exemplary layout of information on a memory medium, such as a flash memory card, loaded into a DPI. In the implementation shown, a removable memory medium, such as a flash card will include information about the number of shots available to the user (500) information about the weapon type including its cycle time between shots (510) , information about the ammunition utilized (520) in the simulation, information about the distance for which the DPI was sighted in (530) , information received via radio frequency from artificial targets (540) and images captured during shots taken (550) by a user. In a high-end implementation, the shot images would be stored on a video cassette recorder or on a digital video disk. This would permit live action before and after the shot to be captured as well. Note that information contained in areas 500, 510, 520, and 530 represent information about the conditions under which a particular hunt will be conducted. In short, this information is preferably preloaded and defines certain parameters about the hunt. The DPI will utilize the removable medium shown in Figure 5 to capture in data form, information about each of the shots taken during the hunt together with the shot images (550) , thus putting important data on the removable medium for post-hunt processing.

Figure 6 is a block diagram of an architecture for an exemplary DPI in accordance with the invention. In the exemplary implementation shown in Figure 6, a CPU (605) controls the operation of the DPI over a bus (600) . CPU has local memory (610) containing program information and data information developed during the course of operation of the instrument. Removable memory (615) corresponds to that discussed in conjunction with Figure 5. The system has a GPS receiver (650) interfaced to the bus (600) over a GPS interface (645) . The purpose of the GPS receiver is to provide location information either continuously for navigational purposes and/or when a shot is taken to specify the particular location at which the DPI has located at the time of the shot. The laser range finder (660) is interfaced to the bus over ranger finder interface (655) and provides ranging data when activated to the trigger mechanism as discussed previously. A video sub-system (620) is discussed more in conjunction with Figure 7 but takes information provided by the digital camera (625) and displays it on display (630) for user viewing. When images are captured as part of a shot being taken using the DPI, they are stored in image storage

(640) or alternatively on removable memory (615) . The image storage medium (640) can utilize either a VCR mechanism or a digital video disk to capture full motion information. When a shot is taken, text describing the state of the system is also stored either with the video information, such as on a second track, or on removable memory (615) . A control interface (665) controls the focus motor (666) utilized as part of the autofocus function, zoom motor (667) utilized for zooming the zoom lens in and out to change the view of the target and zoom in/out switch (668) utilized to activate the in and out zooming of the zoom lens. In addition, the control interface handles triggering information (669) an elevation detector (670) (if this function is not included within the GPS receiver) and a wind detector (671) for detecting the magnitude and direction of wind experienced by a shooter at the location where a shot is taken. The elevation detector (670) is utilized to detect the amount of elevation above or below horizontal experienced by the DPI when a shot is taken. Typically, this can implemented as a digital level or similar device. The wind detector is optional and would not normally be included in a low- end instrument. Similarly, auto-focus and zoom lenses might be omitted in a low-end instrument. A telemetry transmitter receiver (680) sends and receives information over antenna (685) and information received is provided to the system bus over telemetry interface (675) . The telemetry transmitter/receiver permits interaction with intelligent targets as discussed more hereinafter.

Certain user controls are utilized to navigate menu hierarchies if desired using left, right, up, down and enter-buttons or controls on the exterior of the DPI (690) .

Figure 7 is a block diagram of the video sub-system of Figure 6. As shown in Figure 7, live video from camera (625) is applied to frame grabber (710) which permits images captured from the camera to be stored over the bus (600) in image storage (640) shown in Figure 6. An overlay generator (720) permits text from a variety of sources to be received over the bus and applied to images displayed on display (630) and, optionally, on images stored in image storage (640) .

Figure 8 is a representation of an exemplary view provided to a user of a DPI. A display screen (800) is visible to the viewer. The view screen includes an image area (810) which displays the view through the optic sub- system captured by the digital camera. A target acquisition point (830) , such as the intersection point of cross-hairs is overlaid in area (810) . The target acquisition point maybe a simple open circle to simulate a non-telescopic site. A target (820) is shown in Figure 8 to illustrate the use of the target acquisition point . A variety of fields of information are also displayed in this exemplary embodiment to facilitate user interaction. For example the date (840) , time (845) and location (850) are preferably derived from the global positioning satellite sub-system and displayed here. Similarly, the direction in which the digital pursuit instrument is pointed (860) is typically derived from the GPS system. The range (855) is derived from the laser range finding sub-system and displayed here as well. The elevation experienced at a particular point in time is displayed

(865) as well as the weapon type and ammunition shown at

(870) and (875) respectively. The menu button (880) can be activated with an enter button to permit the selection of menu options as discussed hereinafter. The information shown outside of field (810) can be stored either as overlays on the image within the area (800) or can be stored separately or both. The information and particular arrangement of information displayed can be adapted to suit user preferences or the needs of the application to which the DPI is put.

Figure 9 is a representation of exemplary menu selections provided by selecting the menu option of Figure 8. Menu selections found in menu (900) may include inputting of participant profile (910) , viewing digital shots taken (920) and system setup (930) . Input of a participant profile includes such information as inputting a participant's name or other identifying information to be associated with the data when subsequently processed. The "View Digital Shot Taken" menu item permits a user to select and review the shots previously taken by playing them back for display on the display of the system. System setup (930) permits a user to establish certain initial conditions or to adapt to the changes in the type of sub-system installed for a particular packaging of the DPI.

Figures lOA-1 and 10A-2 are side and end views respectively of a two dimensional artificial target which can be equipped with inter-active capabilities giving the appearance of intelligence in accordance with the invention. Figure 10B is an illustration of an artificial three-dimensional target which can be equipped with interactive capabilities giving the appearance of intelligence in accordance with the invention.

Outwardly, two dimensional and three dimensional targets appear to be no different from those commonly used in shooting ranges. However, Figure 11 shows a block diagram of an exemplary architecture used for equipping such a target with intelligence in accordance with the invention. Each target shown in Figure 10 can be equipped with a CPU (1110) which interfaces over bus (1100) with memory (1120) and with telemetry transceiver (1130) over the telemetry interface (1125) . Telemetry is preferably sent and received over a radio frequency channel. However other transmission media may be used. Memory (1120) is preferably a flash card which can removed, programmed with information about the GPS location of the target at its location and re-installed. The memory would also include program information for carrying out the functionality described for the target in conjunction with Figure 12.

Figure 12 is a flow chart of a process by which an intelligent target interacts with a DPI. The target is programmed to periodically send location, orientation, and type of animal represented by the target on a periodic bases. Each target transmission is followed by a response interval (1200) . The target interacts with the DPI using a transmission protocol such as carrier sense multiple access/collision detection (CSMA/CD) known for example from ETHERNET or ALOHA environments. When a DPI detects transmission from a target, the DPI responds with location information (1210) .

The target is aware of it's own location and when the target determines that a DPI is too close (for a particular direction of approach) (1220) the target will behave as if a natural animal had been spooked. In one option, the target will pop up (1230) and then begin transmitting constantly changing location information reflecting the fact that the targets virtual location is changing in a selected direction away from the DPI (1240) . This simulates a natural animal being spooked and running away from the approaching "hunter." When the DPI takes a shot, the DPI records the last position transmitted from the target for hit calculation purposes (1250) . The intelligent target can be programmed to respond at different distances depending on the angle from which a DPI is approaching.

The essence of the intelligent target interaction with the DPI is one of location and action. Based on the location of the DPI relative to the target, a particular action can adaptively change.

Figure 13 is block diagram of an exemplary architecture for a scoring computer in accordance with the invention. In addition to the usual input/output devices such as keyboard, display (s) and mass storage devices, all of which are not shown, the scoring computer will utilize a CPU (1310) , memory (1320) and preferably a high performance image processing accelerator module (1330) . Typically, because of the processing required of the scoring process, this will be fairly high-powered machine, for example, a Silicon Graphics image processing machine. To get the imaging information into the scoring computer, a flash memory reader (1340) , digital video disk reader (1350) and a VCR (1370) interfaced over VCR interface (1360) are connected to the bus (1300) . Thus, images captured in any one of several storage formats can be displayed and processed on the scoring computer. The results for an entire competition may be stored locally, at least for the duration of the competition. This may be done by reading or writing information to a magnetic disc or writable optical storage device; such as (1390) shown in Figure 13. Once a competition is complete, or in some cases while a competition is in progress, participant information will be up-loaded to an high level record keeping facility, such as an international record keeping facility to allow for regional, state, national and international standings to be updated and stored. This can be done over the interface to the international record keeping facility (1380) shown in Figure 13. Animal sightings can also be recorded and stored on a centralized basis for processing and forwarding to game management authorities of various jurisdictions. Such forwarding can occur at either the international, national or local levels .

Figure 14 is a exemplary layout of a weapons/ ammunition scoring database in accordance with the invention. The scoring computer will have stored in mass storage information about a variety of weapon types. For each weapon type (1400) , a number of ammunition types

(1410), (1415) may be appropriate. For each ammunition type a variety of information is stored. For example, the weight of an individual bullet or pellet might be stored together with the muzzle velocity experienced with by the particular bullet or pellet in the particular weapon type. Conveniently, the amount of elevation offset experienced by a bullet from the line of fire is a function of range. Conveniently, a set of values can be stored for a plurality of ranges together with a corresponding drop experienced by the bullet or pellets as a function of range. The distance at which the DPI is sighted in for is required to calculate the height above or below the target sights where the bullet/pellet would strike. Similarly, a two-dimensional table mapping the impact of particular wind velocities as a function of range is also included. Development of these tables can be done experimentally by target shooting the weapon type with a particular type of ammunition and determining the amount of drop as a function of range. Similarly, for given wind velocity, the amount of windage experienced by bullet or pellet can be experimentally determined. Manufacturers of weapons and ammunition publish some table data from which this type of information can be gathered. In use it may be desirable to populate table (s) of the type shown and then interpolate the data for actual conditions. The information shown in the tables of ammunition type 1 (1410) may alternatively be adequately approximated by an algorithm which would avoid the necessity of developing tables and then interpolating based on range. Such an algorithm and implementation would certainly conserve memory. However, separate algorithms might need to be developed for each weapon and ammunition type making the effect of gathering the table information shown in (1410) more practical in certain implementations.

Figure 15 is a exemplary layout of a record for an image database of natural targets. For each animal type, a plurality of images are preferably stored. These images represent views of various sized animals from a variety of perspectives. In the example shown in Figure 15, a variety views of a white-tailed deer weighing 150 pounds are stored. For each elevation from which the deer would be viewed, a plurality of views of the animal at different rotations would be captured and stored. These image views constitute a library for scoring image processing applications described more hereafter. The image processing problem may be simplified by using only outlines for the reference library images and then doing an outline extraction from the captured image for comparison. A number of different elevational views are captured and for each elevational view, a set of rotational views of the animals are captured. It is preferable, that the kill zone for an animal be depicted in each view to facilitate scoring.

Figure 16 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for automatically scoring shots taken using a DPI. The information captured from the DPI is transferred to the scoring computer and read by an appropriate read device. For each shot, contained on the storage medium, the image of the shot is loaded together with the corresponding data

(1600) . For the target range specified by the data, the scoring computer determines where a bullet or pellet zone would pierce the field of view of the camera as described more in conjunction with Figure 17 (1610) . For the particular type of target or targets indicated in the data, the shot image will be correlated with each stored view of the target or targets indicated to determine a best match as discussed more in conjunction in Figure 18 (1620) . Once the best match stored view is determined, an outline of that view is superimposed over the identified position on the image with the kill zone identified on the outline (1630) . If the bullet or pellet zone intersects the kill zone (1640-y) , the shot by the user will be scored as a kill (1645) . If it is not, if the bullet or pellet zone intersects the animal outside the kill zone, it will be scored as a wound or maim (1655) . Otherwise, it will scored as a miss (1660) . In one exemplary scoring scheme, the participant would receive a plus score for a kill ranging from 1-5 points, a negative score of minus one to minus five for a wound or maim and to zero points for a miss.

Figure 17 is an illustration used to explain determination of hit point of a shot. A straight line running from the target acquisition point to the target depicts the line of optical alignment. Presumably, the shot is taken when the target acquisition point is directly positioned on the desired hit point on the target. When the shot is taken, a trajectory for a bullet or pellet zone which would emanate from the weapon is calculated and a hit point determined at a range d from the DPI . The hit point or point of impact at that range may or may not be offset from the point of the target aimed at. Generally, it will be offset. The hit point is calculated by determining the bullet elevation offset and windage displacement experienced during the amount time that a simulated bullet would take to leave the real the weapon and travel the distance d to the target. If the distance d is less than the sighting in distance, then presumably the hit point will be above the target point as shown.

The hit point calculated for the projectile will be typically be above or below the target point. Similarly, in a real optical system, the distance behind the focal point of an image plane such as F₀₀ or F₀₁, would vary depending on the amount of zoom utilized. Thus, as shown in Figure 17, at focal plane F00, a lesser displacement is experienced than that which would be experienced at focal F01 were utilized at a higher zoom. As a result, it is possible to determine the number of pixels by which the hit point is offset from the target acquisition point shown on the image display captured by the DPI . That amount of offset can be determined as follows:

h _ number of pixels d F₀ x resolution

Since h is known from the calculation of the hit point and d is known from the laser range finder, and since the focal length of F₀ and the resolution of the display screen is known, the number of pixels offset between the hit point and the target acquisition point on the screen can be calculated. Thus, using the calculation described and a similar calculation for windage, the precise hit point expected for a particular weapon type and a particular type of ammunition at a give range with respect to the target acquisition point can be determined.

There then remains the problem of placing a kill zone appropriately on the image .

Figure 18A is a flow chart of an exemplary process used for determining a perspective view to be used for scoring and for estimating animal size. The set of images for a particular animal type shown, for example, in Figure 15, are retrieved (1800) . This image set constitutes image view of a known sized animal from different perspectives at a know distance. That image set is scaled for the actual distance to target when it differs from the known distance (1810) . The perspective views of the individual members of the image set are correlated with the image captured by the DPI (1820) to determine a best match view. Once a best match view is selected, the view is scaled to better match the shot image until a "best" match is obtained (1830) . Since perspective views used as references to compare the view contained in the shot image represent views of a known sized animal, an actual animal may be relatively larger or smaller. Thus, by scaling as required in Step 1830, an estimate of the relative size of the animal with respect to a median sized animal can be obtained (1850) . The selected and scaled perspective view together with its preidentified kill zone are superimposed over the correlated image (1840) and utilized for scoring.

Figure 18B is a flow chart of an exemplary process used for determining prospective view to be used for scoring and for providing an alternative approach to estimating animal size. A plurality of sets of images of an animal of different known sizes at a given range are maintained. One of the sets is selected (1800B) and the image set is scaled for the actual distance to the target (1810B) . A perspective view from a selected image set is determined by best match image correlation with a captured image (1820) and the next set is selected (1825) if at least one unprocessed set remains. The best match of views obtained from processing the image sets is retained (1830) and superimposed over the correlated captured image (1840) . The shot location is compared with the zones of the selected view (e.g. Figure 19) to determine a score for the shot in question (1860) . Figure 19 is an illustration of how a view of a target and its kill zone is used for scoring. Figure 19 shows a portion of the displayed image corresponding to portion (810) of Figure 8. The target acquisition point

(1910) is shown. At (1900) , the super imposed image of the scaled and selected view from the reference library is displayed showing the kill zone (1920) . For explanation purposes only, 3 different shots are shown with respect to the target acquisition point (1910) . Shot 1930 is shown in the kill zone and would therefore be scored as a clean kill and receive +5 points. Other locations in the kill zone would receive fewer points. Shot 1940 is shown in the wound/main zone for which -3 points would accrue. Other values of negative points for wound or maim are shown in Figure 19. Shot (1950) is shown off the animal and would therefore be scored as a miss with a point value of 0. Thus, by identifying shot location vis-a-vis the target acquisition point and by super imposing a selected scaled perspective view of the target animal with its kill zone on the image, one can determine where the actual shot hit point or zone was with respect to the animal and whether the animal was killed, wounded or maimed or missed entirely.

Figure 20 is flow chart of an exemplary process for determining a hit point with respect to the target acquisition point. For the particular weapon type specified (2000) , and for the range measured (2010) and for the particular ammunition type specified (2020) , the amount of elevation offset (drop or rise) for a projectile vis-a-vis the target acquisition point is determined

(2030) . The amount of drop is adjusted for the distance at which the weapon was sighted in (2040) . For a particular level of wind measure (2050) , a windage displacement is calculated (2060) using the look-up tables, for example, and a hit point on the image is identified with reference to the target acquisition point (e.g., cross-hairs) (2070) . The hit point on the image is then determined to be a hit, maim or miss point as discussed in conjunction with Figure 19 (2080) . Figure 21 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for sighting in a DPI. The target acquisition point is placed directly on a bull's eye (2100) of a target. The trigger is squeezed and the image is captured (2110) as described above. The image data is processed using the scoring computer (2120) against known performance data to determine the actual target hit point. If the target hit point is not exactly on the bull's eye, the sight is adjusted (2130) as it would be with a normal weapon. The process is repeated until the hit location is adequately positioned with respect to the bull's eye in the judgement of the user (2140) . For sighting in purposes, it may be desirable to utilize a quick algorithm process by the CPU of the DPI unit using the mass of the bullet and the muzzle velocity and equations of motion to estimate an actual hit point for the range for which the DPI is being sighted. However, more accurate results will be obtained by using the scoring processing of the scoring computer.

There has thus been disclosed digital pursuit instruments, intelligent targets and scoring computers which enable one to overcome the problems of the prior art described above. In addition, they permit a variety of competitions to be undertaken year-round in which the entire family can participate without risk of physical injury from the process.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for capturing images of a target, comprising: an imaging device capturing images and displaying them to a user; a location device; a rangefinder; and a control device connected to said imaging device, said location device and said rangefinder for storing information about location of said apparatus and range from said apparatus to a target together with an image of said target in response to a user control signal.

2. Apparatus of claim 1 in which said target is an animal .

3. Apparatus of claim 1 in which said target is an artificial target.

4. Apparatus of claim 1 in which said location device is a global positioning satellite receiver.

5. Apparatus of claim 1 in which said rangefinder is a laser ranging system.

6. Apparatus of claim 1 in which said imaging device comprises an objective lens, a camera capturing a digital image from said objective lens, and a display for displaying said digital image to a user.

7. Apparatus of claim 6 in which said objective lens is a zoom lens.

8. Apparatus of claim 7 in which said zoom lens is motor driven to zoom in or out under control of a user.

9. Apparatus of claim 6 in which said imaging device further comprises: a frame grabber capturing said image of said target in response to said user control signal .

10. Apparatus of claim 6 in which said imaging device further comprises an overlay generator for displaying information in addition to said image on said display.

11. Apparatus of claim 10 in which said overlay generator displays information received from a computer bus.

12. Apparatus of claim 1 in which said user control signal is generated by a trigger mechanism.

13. Apparatus of claim 12 in which said trigger mechanism activates at least two different functions at respective thresholds of displacement from a reference position.

14. Apparatus of claim 1 packaged in a form to simulate a weapon.

15. Apparatus of claim 1 packaged in a form of a video recorder.

16. Apparatus of claim 1 in which said control device stores information on removable memory medium.

17. Apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a telemetry transmitter/receiver for communicating with nearby targets.

18. Apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an elevation detector for detecting the orientation of said apparatus .

19. Apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a wind detector for detecting wind magnitude at said apparatus .

20. Apparatus of claim 1 in which one or more of date, time, location, range, direction, elevation, weapon type or ammunition are displayed on said display for viewing, together with said image of said target, by said user.

21. A method of simulating a weapon at a location, comprising the steps of: storing information about a weapon type and ammunition load; and using said information to determine a simulated hit location at a given distance form said location.

22. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of storing an image of one or more targets near said hit location.

23. A target, comprising: a memory a telemetry transceiver, and a control element, connected to said memory and said telemetry transceiver, for changing target behavior based on information received over said telemetry transceiver.

24. A method of interaction between a target and a user at a user location, comprising the steps of: periodically transmitting location information from the target; in response to said location information from the target, transmitting user location information from the user location; and selectively changing location information from the target in response to said user location information.

25. Apparatus for scoring images of a target stored on removable memory medium, comprising: a processor; a memory medium; a reader for reading from said removable memory medium, images of said target; a bus connecting said processor, said memory and said reader; and a database stored on said memory medium storing information about one or more weapon types and ammunition types suitable for use with each weapon type.

26. Apparatus of claim 24 in which said apparatus further comprises a database stored on said memory medium of images of a particular class of target from different perspective views.

27. A method of scoring images of a target, captured from a distance, stored on a removable memory medium using information about at least one weapon type and at least one ammunition type suitable for use with said weapon type using images of at least one particular class of target from different perspective views, comprising the steps of: determining a hit point where a projectile fired from a real weapon of said weapon type using said ammunition type at said distance toward said target would intersect said the field of view of an image of said target being scored; correlating images of a class of target with said image from said removable memory medium; and superimposing an image from said particular class of target which best matches a portion of said image from said removable memory medium; identifying a kill zone using information from said image from said particular class of target which best matches; and scoring the image of the target based on the relationship of the hit point to the kill zone or to the target .

28. A method of estimating relative animal size, comprising the steps of : comparing an image of an animal of one type taken from a known distance with an image of an animal of the same type having a known size from a different distance; scaling said image of an animal of the same type to said known distance; and using the scaling factor required for scaling to estimate the relative size of the animal with respect to the animal of said known size.

29. A method of determining a hit point of a shot from a simulated weapon with respect to an image showing a target acquisition point of a target at a known distance, comprising the steps of: calculating a trajectory for a shot from a real weapon of a type simulated using ammunition of a specified type ; and determining where on an object plane at said known distance said trajectory would intersect; and displaying a corresponding point on said image of the point of intersection.

30. A method of sighting in apparatus for capturing an image of a target using a sight, comprising the steps of: placing a target acquisition point of said sight on the desired hit point of the target; capturing an image of said target ; determining where an actual hit point would be; visually comparing the actual hit point with the desired hit point; adjusting the sight; and repeating steps a-e until the actual hit point determined is adequately positioned with respect to the desired hit point.