Method and system for creating a display with a distributed aperture system

1. A method for displaying an image captured by a distributed aperture system (DAS), the method comprising:

determining a display line of sight (LOS) and display field of view (FOV) corresponding to an operator display of the DAS;

mapping the display LOS and the display FOV to a set of sensors of a plurality of sensors of the DAS;

for each sensor of the set of sensors:

identifying a set of sensor elements that defines a minimum image capture area corresponding to the display LOS and the display FOV;

processing image data collected by the identified set of sensor elements; and

generating an image for the operator display from the processed image data,

wherein the step of identifying a set of sensor elements includes:

determining vector coordinates of a three-dimensional (3-D) polygon corresponding to the display FOV expressed in a display LOS coordinate system;

transforming the determined vector coordinates of the 3-D polygon to a coordinate system of the subject sensor by clipping the 3-D polygon, based on a viewing point and the coordinate system of the subject sensor, to remove any part of the 3-D polygon that extends behind a near-clipping plane defined in the sensor coordinate system thereby removing parts of the 3-D polygon that are not within an FOV of the subject sensor;

projecting vertices of the clipped 3-D polygon onto a two-dimensional (2-D) coordinate system of the subject sensor, resulting in a projected 2-D subject polygon defining an image capture area;

performing X-axis and Y-axis clipping of the projected 2-D polygon to eliminate any part of the near-plane clipped sensor reference frame in the sensor reference frame which is outside a 2-D area viewable by the sensor to create a projected 2-D image vertex list in the sensor reference frame;

tracking the number of vertices in the projected 2-D image vertex list of the subject sensor; and

eliminating the subject sensor from use in the display image when a number of vertices in its respective projected 2-D image vertex list equals zero.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of identifying a set of sensor elements further includes:

clipping the 2-D polygon based on a physical image capturing boundary of the subject sensor defined by a set of sensor elements of the subject sensor.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of identifying a set of sensor elements further includes:

determining a minimum bounding rectangle which encloses the clipped 2-D polygon and defines the minimum image capture area.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the step of identifying a set of sensor elements further includes:

extracting a subimage from a subject sensor based on the minimum bounding rectangle.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the operator display is helmet mounted and the display LOS is determined by an orientation of the helmet.

6. A method for processing images for a distributed aperture system (DAS) having multiple sensors and at least one display having a line-of-sight (LOS) which can be selectively oriented in a variety of directions, comprising:

determining minimum bounding rectangles of sensor pixels for each sensor of the DAS, for combination in creating a display image, comprising the steps of:

determining a display reference frame to sensor reference frame field-of-view (FOV) transformation matrix using a display LOS azimuth, elevation and roll angles and sensor azimuth, elevation and roll angles;

creating a 3-D display polygon vertex list in a display reference frame using a display FOV azimuth and elevation dimensions;

transforming the 3-D display polygon vertex list from the display reference frame into the sensor reference frame using the display to sensor FOV transformation matrix to form a sensor reference frame vertex list;

performing near-plane clipping on the sensor reference frame vertex list to eliminate any part of the polygon situated behind a near-clipping plane defined in the sensor reference frame thereby removing parts of the 3-D polygon that are not within an FOV of the subject sensor;

projecting the near-plane clipped sensor reference frame vertex list onto a 2-D sensor reference frame and performing X-axis and Y-axis clipping to eliminate any part of the near-plane clipped sensor reference frame vertex list in the sensor reference frame which is outside a 2-D area viewable by the sensor to create a projected 2-D image vertex list in the sensor reference frame;

tracking the number of vertices in the projected 2-D image vertex list of each sensor;

eliminating a sensor from use in the display image when a number of vertices in its respective projected 2-D image vertex list equals zero; and

determining a minimum bounding rectangle of the sensor array to capture the projected and clipped 2-D image.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the display LOS and the sensor azimuth, elevation and roll angles are both relative to a common point or a common platform.

8. A system for processing display images for a distributed aperture system having at least a plurality of sensors, comprising:

a processor; and

processing instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 1 .