Cross-Cockpit Collimated Displays for Flight Simulation

At present, multi-viewer cockpit displays that provide accurate collimation and consistency of other display characteristics, such as intensity and tint, require expensive projection systems. The capability to accomplishing these functions with PC based software would provide both reduced cost and flexibility. Not only would less expensive projectors be required, such software executed on a PC using a GPU would be able to be tuned to any selected projection systems. The sophistication of GPU based graphics on PCs permits modification of the image input to the projection system such that images by multiple projectors can be made to be collimated, have equal intensity, have equal tint, and in general, proved a seamless combined image. DVC has five years of experience using GPU based software for image generation. This experience will permit DVC to develop software for the control of cross-cockpit displays that permit a seamless display with multiple projectors. In addition, nonlinear optimization techniques provide the capability to obtain both collimation and consistency of color and intensity across the entire scene automatically, that is, rapidly and without human intervention. These optimization methods are well known in both the mathematical and engineering communities