Abstract: We describe a touch sensing system projecting light defining a touch sheet above a surface and a camera to capture a touch image of light scattered by a pen intersecting the touch sheet. A signal processor identifies a lateral location of the pen. The pen includes a light source to provide a light signal, and the system also includes two photodiodes to detect the signal from the pen. The touch detection is augmented by modelling the signals received at the photodiodes, dependent on the distance and angle of a pen, and using this to derive a probability of the observed received signals given the pen location determined from the touch sheet. This information can be used, for example, to allocate identities to the pens.

Abstract: We describe a touch sensing system projecting light defining a touch sheet above a surface and a camera to capture a touch image of light scattered by a pen intersecting the touch sheet. A signal processor identifies a lateral location of the pen. The pen includes a light source to provide a light signal, and the system also includes two photodiodes to detect the signal from the pen. The touch detection is augmented by modelling the signals received at the photodiodes, dependent on the distance and angle of a pen, and using this to derive a probability of the observed received signals given the pen location determined from the touch sheet. This information can be used, for example, to allocate identities to the pens.

Abstract: A touch sensing system, for sensing the position of at least one object with respect to surface, the system comprising: a first, 2D touch sensing subsystem to detect a first location of said object with respect to a surface and to provide first location data; a second, object position sensing subsystem to detect a second location of said object, wherein said second location of said object is not constrained by said surface, and to provide second location data; a system to associate said first location data and said second location and to determine additional object-related data from said association; and a system to report position data for said object, wherein said position data comprises data dependent on at least one of said first and second locations and on said additional object-related data.

Abstract: We describe a road vehicle contact-analogue head up display (HUD) comprising: a laser-based virtual image generation system to provide a 2D virtual image; exit pupil expander optics to enlarge an eye box of the HUD; a system for sensing a lateral road position relative to the road vehicle and a vehicle pitch or horizon position; a symbol image generation system to generate symbology for the HUD; and an imagery processor coupled to the symbol image generation system, to the sensor system and to said virtual image generation system, to receive and process symbology image data to convert this to data defining a 2D image for display dependent on the sensed road position such that when viewed the virtual image appears to be at a substantially fixed position relative to said road; and wherein the virtual image is at a distance of at least 5 m from said viewer.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a device for optically detecting position and/or attitude of an object (5) moving in a given travel range (4), said device comprising electro-optical sensors positioned on said object and distributed in groups, called clusters (6), analysis and computation means (2) making it possible to find the position and/or the attitude of said object, electronic image generation means (1) and optical projection means (1) comprising a display and a projection optic. The optical projection means emit, in a projection cone, a clear image (3) at any point of the travel range, the analysis of the signals received by the sensors of at least one cluster making it possible to identify the position and/or the attitude of the object in the frame of reference defined by the projection means, the latter consisting of a plane perpendicular to the projection axis, called image plane, and the projection axis.

Abstract: The electro-optical system for determining the attitude of a mobile part comprises a fixed part and a mobile part, the fixed part being linked rigidly with at least one virtual image plane. The mobile part is linked rigidly with at least one first linear electro-optical device defining a first direction vector, the calculation of the position of the vanishing point of the projection of the straight line comprising the first direction vector in the image plane determining a first direction, representing the direction of the mapping of the first direction vector in the image plane, and a first choice of a first point of the projection in the image plane of the straight line comprising the first direction vector determining a first sense, representing the sense of the mapping of the first direction vector in the image plane.

Abstract: We describe optical techniques for replicating an image to expand the exit pupil of a head-up laser-based image display system. The system includes image replication optics to replicate an image carried by a substantially collimated beam, the image replication optics comprising a pair of substantially planar reflecting optical surfaces defining substantially parallel planes spaced apart in a direction perpendicular to the parallel planes. The system is configured to launch the collimated beam into a region between the parallel planes such that the reflecting optical surfaces waveguide the beam between the surfaces in a plurality of successive reflections at front and rear optical surfaces. The front optical surface is configured to transmit a proportion of the collimated beam when reflecting the beam such that at each reflection of the collimated beam at the front optical surface a replica of the image is output from the image replication optics.

Abstract: The invention relates to holographic head-up displays, to holographic optical sights, and also to 3D holographic image displays. We describe a holographic head-up display and a holographic optical sight, for displaying, in an eye box of the display/sight, a virtual image comprising one or more substantially two-dimensional images, the head-up display comprising: a laser light source; a spatial light modulator (SLM) to display a hologram of the two-dimensional images; illumination optics in an optical path between said laser light source and said SLM to illuminate said SLM; and imaging optics to image a plane of said SLM comprising said hologram into an SLM image plane in said eye box such that the lens of the eye of an observer of said head-up display performs a space-frequency transform of said hologram on said SLM to generate an image within said observer's eye corresponding to the two-dimensional images.

Abstract: The electro-optical system for determining the attitude of a mobile part comprises a fixed part and a mobile part, the fixed part being linked rigidly with at least one virtual image plane. The mobile part is linked rigidly with at least one first linear electro-optical device defining a first direction vector, the calculation of the position of the vanishing point of the projection of the straight line comprising the first direction vector in the image plane determining a first direction, representing the direction of the mapping of the first direction vector in the image plane, and a first choice of a first point of the projection in the image plane of the straight line comprising the first direction vector determining a first sense, representing the sense of the mapping of the first direction vector in the image plane.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a device for optically detecting position and/or attitude of an object (5) moving in a given travel range (4), said device comprising electro-optical sensors positioned on said object and distributed in groups, called clusters (6), analysis and computation means (2) making it possible to find the position and/or the attitude of said object, electronic image generation means (1) and optical projection means (1) comprising a display and a projection optic. The optical projection means emit, in a projection cone, a clear image (3) at any point of the travel range, the analysis of the signals received by the sensors of at least one cluster making it possible to identify the position and/or the attitude of the object in the frame of reference defined by the projection means, the latter consisting of a plane perpendicular to the projection axis, called image plane, and the projection axis.

Abstract: The invention relates to a display device with a secured electronic architecture for aeronautical applications. Each device comprises an electronic computer and an associated matrix-type display device. The invention applies essentially to display systems having a small number of large-sized screens. The invention proposes to structure the display device as two independent display zones and the computer as two electronic subassemblies, which are also independent, in such a way that a failure of one of the elements entails, at most, only the failure of just one zone of the display device. The invention applies essentially to liquid-crystal active-matrix display devices having a lighting system based on fluorescent tubes. Two embodiments of the display zones are described. In the first embodiment, only one part of the area of the screen is lost in the event of a failure. In the second embodiment, the resolution of the display screen is simply downgraded by a factor of 2 in the event of a failure.