Investigation into the use of a personal computer for generating real-time infrared imagery

Francois P.J. le Roux; Francois G. Collin; F. Wilhelm Leuschner

doi:10.1117/12.438093

31 August 2001 Investigation into the use of a personal computer for generating real-time infrared imagery

Francois P.J. le Roux, Francois G. Collin, F. Wilhelm Leuschner

Proceedings Volume 4366, Technologies for Synthetic Environments: Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing VI; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.438093
Event: Aerospace/Defense Sensing, Simulation, and Controls, 2001, Orlando, FL, United States

Abstract

The simulation of infrared imagery forms an integral part of the design and evaluation of infrared systems. HWIL simulations require imagery at frame rates of 100Hz and above. The generation of real-time imagery used to be the domain of graphics super-computers and custom rendering hardware. We investigated the use of a new generation of personal computer graphics accelerators to generate real-time infrared imagery, using OpenGL as the graphics library. The hardware was a NVIDIA GeForce-based graphics accelerator running on a standard Pentium III computer. The graphics accelerator is limited to a color resolution of 8 bits per channel. A technique was investigated to artificially increase this resolution in order to increase the fidelity of the simulation. OpenGL was designed to render images in the visual band. The implementation of the simulation in OpenGL requires the mapping of spectrally variant entities such as atmospheric transmittance to single parameter equivalents. Various combinations of sensor spectral response, source radiance and atmospheric transmittance were investigated to determine the situations under which such a mapping is feasible. A combination of rendering images on the graphics card, and processing the resultant images on the personal computer was investigated to increase the rendering speed and the fidelity of the simulation.

Citation Download Citation

Francois P.J. le Roux, Francois G. Collin, and F. Wilhelm Leuschner "Investigation into the use of a personal computer for generating real-time infrared imagery", Proc. SPIE 4366, Technologies for Synthetic Environments: Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing VI, (31 August 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.438093

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