Environmental fog/rain visual display system for aircraft simulators

An environmental fog/rain visual display system for aircraft simulators is described. The electronic elements of the system include a real time digital computer, a caligraphic color display which simulates landing lights of selective intensity, and a color television camera for producing a moving color display of the airport runway as depicted on a model terrain board. The mechanical simulation elements of the system include an environmental chamber which can produce natural fog, nonhomogeneous fog, rain and fog combined, or rain only. A pilot looking through the aircraft wind screen will look through the fog and/or rain generated in the environmental chamber onto a viewing screen with the simulated color image of the airport runway thereon, and observe a very real simulation of actual conditions of a runway as it would appear through actual fog and/or rain

Spectrally balanced chromatic landing approach lighting system

Red warning lights delineate the runway approach with additional blue lights juxtaposed with the red lights such that the red lights are chromatically balanced. The red/blue point light sources result in the phenomenon that the red lights appear in front of the blue lights with about one and one-half times the diameter of the blue. To a pilot observing these lights along a glide path, those red lights directly below appear to be nearer than the blue lights. For those lights farther away seen in perspective at oblique angles, the red lights appear to be in a position closer to the pilot and hence appear to be above the corresponding blue lights. This produces a very pronounced three dimensional effect referred to as chromostereopsis which provides valuable visual cues to enable the pilot to perceive his actual position above the ground and the actual distance to the runway

Virtual-image display system for flight simulators

Dual TV monitor and collimated lens system in windscreens of standard aircraft cockpit simulator permits both pilot and copilot to simultaneously view three dimensional presentation. Proper design of complete system permits depth and viewpoint of visual displays to be accurately presented

Full color hybrid display for aircraft simulators

A full spectrum color monitor, connected to the camera and lens system of a television camera supported by a gantry frame over a terrain model simulating an aircraft landing zone, projects the monitor image onto a lens or screen visually accessible to a trainee in the simulator. A digital computer produces a pattern corresponding to the lights associated with the landing strip onto a monochromatic display, and an optical system projects the calligraphic image onto the same lens so that it is superposed on the video representation of the landing field. The optical system includes a four-color wheel which is rotated between the calligraphic display and the lens, and an apparatus for synchronizing the generation of a calligraphic pattern with the color segments on the color wheel. A servo feedback system responsive to the servo motors on the gantry frame produces an input to the computer so that the calligraphically generated signal corresponds in shape, size and location to the video signal

InSb charge coupled infrared imaging device: The 20 element linear imager

The design and fabrication of the 8585 InSb charge coupled infrared imaging device (CCIRID) chip are reported. The InSb material characteristics are described along with mask and process modifications. Test results for the 2- and 20-element CCIRID's are discussed, including gate oxide characteristics, charge transfer efficiency, optical mode of operation, and development of the surface potential diagram

Conical scan impact study. Volume 2: Small local user data processing facility

The impact of a conical scan versus a linear scan multispectral scanner (MSS) instrument on a small local-user data processing facility was studied. User data requirements were examined to determine the unique system rquirements for a low cost ground system (LCGS) compatible with the Earth Observatory Satellite (EOS) system. Candidate concepts were defined for the LCGS and preliminary designs were developed for selected concepts. The impact of a conical scan MSS versus a linear scan MSS was evaluated for the selected concepts. It was concluded that there are valid user requirements for the LCGS and, as a result of these requirements, the impact of the conical scanner is minimal, although some new hardware development for the LCGS is necessary to handle conical scan data

A Molecular Phylogenetic Study of Generic and Subgeneric Relationships in the Southwest Australian Endemics Conostylis and Blancoa (Haemodoraceae)

We sequenced the plastid gene matK and the nuclear ribosomal spacer ITS for 39 of the 47+ species of Conostylis as well as its monotypic sister genus Blancoa, which some authors have included within Conostylis. Conostylis received 99% bootstrap support as monophyletic, with 100% support that Blancoa is its sister. Within Conostylis, the study provides strong support for two large sister clades, which we refer to as clades A (100%) and B (99%). Clade A consists of C. subgen. Conostylis plus the recently discovered C. glabra of C. subgen. Pendula sect. Divaricata (100%), and C. subgen. Pendula sect. Appendicula (100%). Clade B consists of species mostly placed within the remainder of C. subgen. Pendula but also contains members of the other small subgenera. Subgenus Pendula can be recircumscribed as monophyletic by excluding sect. Appendicula, Conostylis phathyrantha, and C. glabra and including subgen. Androstemma and subgen. Greenia. The status of the other two minor subgenera—C. subgen. Brachycaulon and C. subgen. Bicolorata—requires further investigation. Conostylis sect. Divaricata is polyphyletic. Ancient vicariance events are postulated for Conostylis involving separation of major clades in the northern and southern kwongan regions of southwestern Australia. The phylogenetic pattern in Conostylis is consistent across several lineages with the prolonged persistence of relictual taxa combined with explosive more recent speciation, the latter pronounced in the northern kwongan. There is evidence of significant divergence in major speciation mechanisms and chromosome number change among the three most species-rich subgenera/sections (dysploidy in Pendula and Appendicula vs. diploid speciation in Conostylis). Further investigation is needed to evaluate these ideas and elucidate the patterns of speciation in this most diverse genus of Haemodoraceae

Assessing Human Error Against a Benchmark of Perfection

An increasing number of domains are providing us with detailed trace data on human decisions in settings where we can evaluate the quality of these decisions via an algorithm. Motivated by this development, an emerging line of work has begun to consider whether we can characterize and predict the kinds of decisions where people are likely to make errors. To investigate what a general framework for human error prediction might look like, we focus on a model system with a rich history in the behavioral sciences: the decisions made by chess players as they select moves in a game. We carry out our analysis at a large scale, employing datasets with several million recorded games, and using chess tablebases to acquire a form of ground truth for a subset of chess positions that have been completely solved by computers but remain challenging even for the best players in the world. We organize our analysis around three categories of features that we argue are present in most settings where the analysis of human error is applicable: the skill of the decision-maker, the time available to make the decision, and the inherent difficulty of the decision. We identify rich structure in all three of these categories of features, and find strong evidence that in our domain, features describing the inherent difficulty of an instance are significantly more powerful than features based on skill or time.Comment: KDD 2016; 10 page

A study of the phase transition in the usual statistical model for nuclear multifragmentation

We use a simplified model which is based on the same physics as inherent in most statistical models for nuclear multifragmentation. The simplified model allows exact calculations for thermodynamic properties of systems of large number of particles. This enables us to study a phase transition in the model. A first order phase transition can be tracked down. There are significant differences between this phase transition and some other well-known cases

Black Holes and Naked Singularities in Low Energy Limit of String Gravity with Modulus Field

We show that the black hole solutions of the effective string theory action, where one-loop effects that couple the moduli to gravity via a Gauss-Bonnet term are taken into account, admit primary scalar hair. The requirement of absence of naked singularities imposes an upper bound on the scalar charges.Comment: more details are added and some misprint are correcte