Method and System for Visualization Enhancement for Situational Awareness

Abstract

An after-action, mission review tool that displays camera and navigation sensor data allowing a user to pan, tilt, and zoom through the images from front and back cameras on an vehicle, while simultaneously viewing time/date information, along with any available navigation information such as the latitude and longitude of the vehicle at that time instance. Also displayed is a visual representation of the path the vehicle traversed; when the user clicks on the path, the image is automatically changed to the image corresponding to that position. If aerial images of the area are available, the path can be plotted on the geo-referenced image.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows: 
     
         1 . A program storage device readable by a computer machine, tangibly embodying program instructions executable by the computer machine to perform method steps for visualization enhancement for situational awareness, said method steps comprising:
 providing a graphical user interface enabling a user to interact with the software program running on the computer machine running;   the computer machine providing a database of vehicle mission recordings;   selecting one or more mission recordings;   receiving audio/visual information from one or more cameras on a mission vehicle to observe the environment in real-time;   receiving navigational sensor data from one or more sensors on a mission vehicle to observe the environment in real-time and provide;   displaying a GUI window comprising:
 a navigation map associated with the mission recording wherein,
 the navigation map displays the traveled path traveled of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) in a first color, if available 
 the current position of the vehicle is indicated by a triangle in a second color, 
 the front of the vehicle is designated by the point of the triangle, 
 the field of view (FOV) of the camera is also indicated on the triangle by the two adjacent lines, shown in a third color; 
 
 a status display; and 
 taking one or more camera images from the mission recording; and 
 displaying camera and navigational sensor data. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of tagging events in the mission recoding. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of
 tagging events in the mission recoding;   loading multiple mission files;   displaying each loaded mission file on separate timelines;   each timeline is zoom-able using buttons at the bottom of the screen;   the user can drag on the timeline to display different portions of the timeline;   below the timelines, an overview bar displays, as denoted by a first colored line, what portion of the overall timeline is being displayed and the current image location, a denoted by second colored line or bar;   the second colored line or bar can be dragged to quickly access other portions of the timelines;   events are noted by a colored line or bar on the timeline;   each event can be selected and the comment from that event is displayed beneath the timelines;   the (x,y) location of that comment is plotted as a colored circle on the map;   the current image position is represented by a colored line on the timelines; and   dragging the current image position colored line to move forward or backward in the images.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein events are tagged automatically in the recoding by the UGV. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising the steps of
 saving, adding, editing, or deleting an event;   rearranging the order of time lines by moving them up or down in order for easier comparison; and   closing a time line if no longer needed.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising the steps of
 adding one or more tags to a mission;   annotating the image data with one or more tags;   searching one or more missions by the tag.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein UDV will either autonomously make decisions about its behavior or pass the information to a human operator at a different location who will control the vehicle through teleoperation; 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein an aerial imagery is displayed as well and the navigation map superimposed or laid over top of the aerial imagery using GPS to align the aerial imagery with the navigation map. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information displayed the status display includes the date and time of the mission, along with the GMT time in seconds, the position of the UGV in UTM and lat/long position, and vehicle speed. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein
 the data required to run the present invention consists of image files (.jpg) from the vehicle's cameras and daq files that record the navigation information;   these files are time and date stamped;   placing all the image and daq files from a single mission into a folder on the computer on which a user will be executing the program;   each mission has its own separate folder to ensure that the data loads correctly; and   retrieving the files from the vehicle locally or remotely over a computer network.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein
 providing the LADAR maps as semi-transparent allowing the user to view the aerial imagery underneath the map; and   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of
 providing a built-in 3D viewer;   displaying a 3D map in addition to the navigation and camera images;   locking the viewpoints of the three images to each other so that zooming and panning on the image will affect the 3D view and vice versa;   adjusting the 3d map, navigation map, and image to match the pan/tilt/zoom commands of the operator.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of
 providing a map server;   providing a map user interface;   providing controls so that the map display can be zoomed and panned using mouse actions;   selecting the time ranges to search using calendar inputs placed below the map display;   displaying status information about can be also be seen to the right of the date/time selection;   providing a timeline featured at the bottom of the UI map display;   conducting a search,   when a search is conducted, events will appear on the timeline;   these events can be selected, and pertinent information is displayed above the timeline.   
     
     
         13 . A program storage device readable by a computer machine, tangibly embodying program instructions executable by the computer machine to perform method steps for visualization enhancement for situational awareness, said method steps comprising:
 providing a graphical user interface enabling a user to interact with the software program running on the computer machine running;   the computer machine providing a database of vehicle mission recordings;   selecting one or more mission recordings;   displaying a GUI window comprising:
 a navigation map associated with the mission recording wherein, 
 the navigation map displays the traveled path traveled of an UGV Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) in a first color, if available 
 the current position of the vehicle is indicated by a shape in a second color, 
 a status display; and 
 taking one or more camera images from the mission recording; 
 overlaying on the top of the image display is the cardinal direction of the displayed camera image; 
   changing the direction with camera panning within the still frame image;   progressing through the timeline of a mission using a horizontal scroll bar slider wherein each slider increment is equivalent to moving one second in time;   allowing a user to jump to any point from the beginning to the end of the mission;   quickly incrementing or decrementing of the slider;   allowing the user to toggle between the front camera and the rear camera of the vehicle;   providing a set of playback controls.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising the steps of
 adding one or more tags to a mission;   annotating the image data with one or more tags;   searching one or more missions by the tag.   providing a map server;   providing a map user interface;   providing controls so that the map display can be zoomed and panned using mouse actions;   selecting the time ranges to search using calendar inputs placed below the map display;   displaying status information to the right of the date/time selection; and   providing a timeline featured at the bottom of the UI map display.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising the steps of
 conducting a search,
 when a search is conducted, events will appear on the timeline; 
 these events can be selected, and pertinent information is displayed above the timeline; 
 querying a specific location; 
 dragging a bounding box over the map; 
 the resulting navigation paths will be drawn on the display map; 
 search results summarizing the collections are found in the bounding box; 
   colored lines on the timeline represent the start time of each collection in the search results, where each collection is a ten minute segment of data; and   when an event on the timeline is selected, the collection information is displayed in the search results section.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising the steps of
 downloading and displaying 360 degree imagery from the database; and   displaying multiple images from different parts of the timeline simultaneously.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising the steps of
 providing a search server;   using a combination of spatial and temporal indexes at varying scales to answer search queries that may include time, distance or producer identity constraints;   sending a query to a search server;   using a query optimizer to determine the best search strategy for the constraints given by the search server;   conducting a Time/ID search through global linear indices;   conducting a spatial search through indices in a hierarchy of grids where the server looks at a grid hierarchy that splits the surface of the planet into distinct cells.   data are associated with cells at certain levels of the hierarchy;   the server performs a recursive search within this hierarchy, identifying the largest cells that are entirely within the search radius;   cells that are only partially covered by the search area are subdivided until either a completely covered cell is found or the process reaches the lowest level of grid cells;   the server takes its list of matching cells and processes each one;   any cell that has been populated will appear in the root-level tree that maps cell IDs to a set of local indices;   when the particular cell is completely enclosed within the search area, the server looks in the cell's local temporal index for collection units that match the time constraint, otherwise, the server will look in either a spatial tree for queries that match only part of the cell but do not specify a time range, or a local spatiotemporal index for queries that specify both a part of the cell and a time range; and   the search server returns a result set in which it lists each collection or  10 -minute unit it found.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising the steps of
 querying a unit or collection from the search server;   listing each collection's data;   listing a selected unit or collection start time as well as its sequential number within the collection and all of the data that would be returned for the corresponding collection; and   including a summary of the unit or collection, consisting of a list of time-stamped points at a specified resolution.   
     
     
         20 . The method of claim  19 , further comprising the steps of
 selecting or clicking on a static object of interest (OOI) through two or more frames;   using the navigation information of the robot in those frames, along with the positions in the image clicked or selected;   triangulating the object to its global position;   adjusting the virtual camera to this new focus point;   moving forward and backward in the video stream;   centering the camera image by panning and tilting the virtual camera around the object; and   viewing the object from multiple angles.   
     
     
         21 . The method of claim  19 , further comprising the steps of
 displaying path of the robots from both missions are displayed on the map in two different colors;   clicking the map on an overlapping location;   navigating to that location using the buttons on the app brings up the two images side by side;   using navigation information from the time the images were taken to align the orientation of the images so that the images shown on the screen are showing the same area of the environment;   locking the images so that moving a finger on the screen changes the pan/tilt/zoom of both images; and   comparing images from two separate missions.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein two missions can be compared after-action or a previous mission can be compared to the live mission.