Low Cost Image Generator for Mission Rehearsal

There are many new graphics boards and chip sets promising to lower the costs of image generation. This study is to determine which of the new products may be used to develop a low cost system using large-area phototexturing for mission rehearsal, planning, and preview. The system will use aerial photography and remote sensing imagery to provide the surface detail in three-dimensional terrain. Imagery is viewable in real time either on a desktop monitor or a headmounted display. The principal issues to be studied are identifying appropriate technology from the fifty or more vendors in the three-dimensional graphics market and adapting the hardware technology for use in an integrated system, including database formatting software, texture retrieval software, controls and control software, and the computer system configuration. A prototype design is to be produced in sufficient detail to establish feasibility and to determine the cost and schedule for implementation.