Low Latency Infrared Positional Operating Projection (LOLIPOP) system

The development of Distrbuted Aperture System (DAS) for helicopters and fixed wing aircraft constitutes a major breakthrough in situational awareness. However, access is limited to the personnel with Head Mounted Displays and head tracking systems. Aircrew in rear of a helicopter range over a volume of several dozen cubic feet. As a result, it is necessary to provide a head-tracking system which is capable of operating within this environment. Traditional methods are ill suited to operation due to the necessary volume required. AS & T proposes the Low Latency Infrared Positional Operating Projection (LOLIPOP) system to provide a scalable, precise, large-area tracking system which is capable of operating in complex environments with large numbers of closely interacting entities. Throughout the operating area, a series of very high-speed (14.kHz) near-infrared (1033-1550nm) LED-based Digital Light Processor (DLP) picoprojectors provide overlapping illumination of the volume. Each projector is driven with a sequence of binary images which encode the position of each pixel within the projected image as well as an identifier sequence for the projector. Overlapping projectors use differing temporal carrier frequencies to allow sensor discrimination and background rejection. Pixel positions from multiple projectors received by each sensor are triangulated to obtain position and orientation.