Abstract: The invention relates to the development, control and execution of interactive software. An interactive component of the invention is configured to enable a defined interaction between the interactive digital system and an environment of the interactive digital system. It comprises a first subcomponent, defining a coupling between a second interactive component and a third interactive component. Said first subcomponent is configured, when executed by the interactive digital system, to generate an activation of the third interactive component conditional upon an activation of the second interactive component, said activation enabling the defined interaction.

Abstract: The invention relates to the verification of properties of an interactive component having a recursive tree structure of subcomponents. The verification comprises creating an oriented graph from the tree, said oriented graph comprising arcs for the child relationships of the tree, and arcs for couplings creating upon couplings between the components. The verification comprises creating a second graph representative of the property, and verifying if the second graph is exhibited within the first oriented graph.

Abstract: A mechanism is provided for exploring three dimensional environments such as those generated from X-ray and tomography scans, in such a way as to “see round” obstacles to an article of interest, without degrading the overall context of an article of interest in terms of it position in relationship to other articles, and to the viewpoint of the user. This is achieved by defining a light guide curve leading to the user's viewpoint, with respect to which ray tracing is performed to define the image displayed to the user whereby rays passing within a predetermined distance of the light guide curve at a relative angle within a predetermined range thereto are deviated so as to conform therewith to a degree proportional to its distance therefrom.

Abstract: A mechanism for interacting with code such as software code is provided, whereby the code is represented as a graph such as a finite state machine corresponding to the code, such that a user may define a path through the code for example by way of a gesture or cursor movement, and the representation of the graph being restructured to give prominence to the nodes belonging to the defined path, and their sequence as defined in the path. The underlying code associated with each node may be presented with each corresponding node, so that the code of the nodes in the path is aligned, and can be read through as a continuous text. Amendments made to the code as presented can be reintegrated, and the representation adjusted as necessary.

Abstract: In a crowded representation of a virtual three dimensional space defined in terms of voxels, an object of interest will often be occluded by one or more objects of varying densities between the virtual camera defining the user's point of view, and the object of interest. To automatically identify an optimal camera position, an number of candidate positions are considered, for example situated at the vertices of a regular polyhedron centred on the object of interest. For each of these candidate positions, a ray is cast towards the object of interest, and the occlusion for each intervening voxel is determined as the product of that voxel's density, and a density transfer function. The virtual camera position corresponding to the least occluded path is then selected as the new point of view.

Abstract: The invention discloses a vehicle management system which is energy centric. The system may be configured to operate on a terrestrial vehicle, a nautical or on an aerial vehicle. It is configured to allow a user input a route comprising legs, each leg associated with an activity and an energy consumption mode. The system captures parameters from sensors or sensor emulators to compute a position of the vehicle and a predicted energy consumption per leg. The system comprises a display unit which associates graphically the activities, their energy consumptions and their duration. It allows the user to simulate what-if scenarios, to continuously visualize the impact of modifications of some of the parameters of energy consumption on an energy/time/range budget. The invention discloses a vehicle energy management system wherein the simulation capability is configured to display the time spent on each activity in a scale which is commensurate to the energy consumption.

Abstract: Objects in a voxel based computer generated three dimensional environment are identified by traversing adjacent voxels meeting a predetermined criterion with respect to a scalar metadata value associated with each voxel, such as opacity or density. These adjacent voxels may be explored in accordance with a tree-crawling algorithm such as a breadth first or depth first algorithm. Once all adjacent cells meeting the criterion are identified, these are determined to represent a discrete object, and displayed as such. The starting point for the traversing process may be the voxel closest to a virtual camera position along the line of sight of that virtual camera meeting the criterion.

Abstract: A vehicle attitude display such as a Primary Flight Display presents pitch and bank information by displaying a vehicle avatar as fixed, with respect to a moving artificial horizon while displaying a movable symbol at a position along the vehicle avatar that is proportional to the symmetry of the vehicle. Parts of the display are dynamically emphasized or de-emphasized to support rapid assimilation of key data. Display format may be dynamically adjusted depending on vehicle use conditions. Display is intended for use both in-vehicle, and remotely.

Abstract: A method of defining a path model from a set of realistic paths is provided, where each path in the set of realistic paths is expanded on piece-wise polynomial basis, and a respective centroid function and sequence of eigenfunctions calculated for each expanded representation. A set of principle paths representing the major variation of this set of paths is obtained describing the variations of the set of realistic paths with respect to the centroid. The path model thus comprises a linear combination of said principle paths. The path model may be used as the basis for the generation of new curves having similar characteristics to the original set of realistic paths.

Abstract: To better explore a virtual 3d computer generated environment comprised of objects which may be voxels, polygons or any other construct are selectively not displayed so as to better reveal underlying objects. The objects are each associated with a metadata value which contributes to determining their visibility such as a density or opacity value. The manner of selection is somewhat analogous to the projection of a beam of light towards the objects from a virtual projector, where a display threshold is determined for each object within the field of view of said virtual projector on the basis of a display function having an inverse relation to distance from the virtual projector and further varying as a function of the angle defined by the orientation of the virtual projector and a line drawn from said virtual projector to each said object respectively.

Abstract: Datasets such as two dimensional raster images or three dimensional voxel based representations are often processed for representation using a transfer function defined by a curve. A mechanism for manually adjusting such curves is described, whereby a user adds a second curve. The transfer curve is recalculated so as to draw closer to the second curve. By drawing the second curve in the shape required for the transfer curve, and repeating this gesture as the transfer curve evolves, the user can subtly and interactively develop the transfer curve until the processed representation is exactly as required. The attractive effect of the points of the first curve on those of adjacent point on the first curve and on those of the second may be attractive or repellent, may vary in any manner as a function of distance, and in particular may imitate the effects of physical forces such as magnetic, elastic, etc.

Abstract: A mechanism for interacting with code such as software code is provided, whereby the code is represented as a graph such as a finite state machine corresponding to the code, such that a user may define a path through the code for example by means of a gesture or cursor movement, and the representation of the graph being restructured to give prominence to the nodes belonging to the defined path, and their sequence as defined in the path. The underlying code associated with each node may be presented with each corresponding node, so that the code of the nodes in the path is aligned, and can be read through as a continuous text. Amendments made to the code as presented can be reintegrated, and the representation adjusted as necessary.

Abstract: A mechanism is provided for exploring three dimensional environments such as those generated from X-ray and tomography scans, in such a way as to “see round” obstacles to an article of interest, without degrading the overall context of an article of interest in terms of it position in relationship to other articles, and to the viewpoint of the user. This is achieved by defining a light guide curve leading to the user's viewpoint, with respect to which ray tracing is performed to define the image displayed to the user whereby rays passing within a predetermined distance of the light guide curve at a relative angle within a predetermined range thereto are deviated so as to conform therewith to a degree proportional to its distance therefrom.

Abstract: The invention discloses a method to measure end-to-end and partial latency between an input interface and an output interface of a processing device. The invention uses a generator of a calibrated output to be output by the processing device through the output interface and a sensor configured to capture the calibrated output and send it to a processing unit of the processing device through the input interface. An advantageous arrangement of a calibrated output is a specific texture to be output by a screen and captured by an optical sensor. A specific texture comprises elementary patterns which have a defined number of pixels and a defined proportion and location of dark and light pixels. According to certain aspects of the invention, a calibration of latency is performed based on a number of parameters defining the hardware and/or software configuration of the processing device, and/or its conditions of operation.

Abstract: The invention discloses a vehicle management system which is energy centric. The system may be configured to operate on a terrestrial vehicle, a nautical or on an aerial vehicle. It is configured to allow a user input a route comprising legs, each leg associated with an activity and an energy consumption mode. The system captures parameters from sensors or sensor emulators to compute a position of the vehicle and a predicted energy consumption per leg. The system comprises a display unit which associates graphically the activities, their energy consumptions and their duration. It allows the user to simulate what-if scenarios, to continuously visualize the impact of modifications of some of the parameters of energy consumption on an energy/time/range budget. The invention discloses a vehicle energy management system wherein the simulation capability is configured to display the time spent on each activity in a scale which is commensurate to the energy consumption.

Abstract: A mechanism for interacting with software code based on translation into a finite state machine is presented. The states of the translated code currently under review are presented, along with other related states. Related states may be states that feed into the states of the translated code currently under review, or that may follow those states in the process flow. User edits may be made to related states as they are presented in connection with states of the translated code currently under review, and the corresponding code updated accordingly. The states of the translated code currently under review, and the corresponding related states may be updated dynamically to reflect actual code execution.

Abstract: A vehicle attitude display such as a Primary Flight Display presents pitch and bank information by displaying a vehicle avatar as fixed, with respect to a moving artificial horizon whilst displaying a movable symbol at a position along the vehicle avatar that is proportional to the symmetry of the vehicle. Parts of the display are dynamically emphasised or de-emphasised to support rapid assimilation of key data. Display format may be dynamically adjusted depending on vehicle use conditions. Display is intended for use both in-vehicle, and remotely.

Abstract: A method of defining a path model from a set of realistic paths is provided, where each path in the set of realistic paths is expanded on piece-wise polynomial basis, and a respective centroid function and sequence of eigenfunctions calculated for each expanded representation. A set of principle paths representing the major variation of this set of paths is obtained describing the variations of the set of realistic paths with respect to the centroid. The path model thus comprises a linear combination of said principle paths. The path model may be used as the basis for the generation of new curves having similar characteristics to the original set of realistic paths.

Abstract: To better explore a virtual 3d computer generated environment comprised of objects which may be voxels, polygons or any other construct are selectively not displayed so as to better reveal underlying objects. The objects are each associated with a metadata value which contributes to determining their visibility such as a density or opacity value. The manner of selection is somewhat analogous to the projection of a beam of light towards the objects from a virtual projector, where a display threshold is determined for each object within the field of view of said virtual projector on the basis of a display function having an inverse relation to distance from the virtual projector and further varying as a function of the angle defined by the orientation of the virtual projector and a line drawn from said virtual projector to each said object respectively.

Abstract: In order to browse between a collection of datasets susceptible of graphical representation, these datasets are associated with points on a sliding scale of one, two or three dimensions. When a point corresponding to a particular dataset is selected by a user via a mouse pointer etc. it is rendered as a graphical representation and presented to the user. When an intermediate point is selected, a interpolation of the datasets corresponding to the nearby points is generated and the resulting dataset rendered as a graphical representation and presented to the user. The interaction may be implemented with a slider bar type widget having hybrid behaviour such that clicking on the bar causes the button to jump to the nearest point corresponding to a data, while sliding to a chosen intermediate position activates the interpolation of adjacent datasets.