SDS International Advanced Technologies Division announced introduction of their latest addition to the AAcuity™ PC-Base Product Line, the ShAAdow Buffer™ PC-IG. Based upon low-cost COTS PCs and Digital Projectors, the ShAAdow Buffer™ PC-IG technology delivers software-based tiled, soft-edge-blended and digitally-warped, super-high-resolution, high-brightness, visuals at over 100Hz. The ShAAdow Buffer’s revolutionary divide and conquer architecture innovatively supports networking and fusion of low-cost COTS PCs and projectors for next generation display systems designed for use in advanced military simulations and civilian applications. Myriad configurations are made possible with AAcuity™ PC-IGs combined with the ShAAdow Buffer™ PC-IG technology option. Planned implementations include, Navy F-18 Simulation with a Quad Projector front screen of 2500x2040 pixels; USAF Control Room screen using nine seamless channels of 3800x3050 pixels overall; and a 360x70 Degree Field of View dome with 16 edge-blended/distortion-corrected channels totaling 10,000x2000pixels. Currently, COTS projectors represent the limiting factor regarding cost-effective high-resolution displays. For example, given projectors that natively support 1600x1200 the above the ShAAdow Buffer™ PC-IG solutions become 3200x2400; 4800x3600; 12,800x2400 pixels respectively. The advent of affordable, higher-resolution digital projectors will facilitate even higher resolution displays.

 

AAcuity™ ShAAdow Buffer™ PC-IG options incorporate all AAcuity™ PC-IG capabilities, and add specific software-based Soft-Edge-Blending and Dome-Distortion-Correction capabilities. With these additional capabilities, the ShAAdow Buffer™ PC-IG expands the AAcuity™ PC-IG’s application from single/multiple flat-panel displays (including USAF/USN M2DART-type applications) to continuous cylindrical and/or domed-type display surfaces. Moreover, because the Soft-Edge-Blending and Distortion-Correction are performed within the IG’s software, ShAAdow Buffer™ software negates the need for higher-cost, projector hardware-based solutions. Furthermore, since the software operates effectively on varying levels of projectors (from high-end D-ILAs and Barcos to low-end LCD systems), it provides cost-effective solutions for use on emerging systems or as replacements for older IG systems. Using the SDS ShAAdow Buffer™ software, individual channels provide up to 2048x1536 per PC with NVIDIA hardware and appropriate projection systems. In addition, the ShAAdow Buffer™ Quad Display version (four blended/distortion corrected PC-IGs per channel) provides increased resolution, increased brightness, and increased scene density for more realistic displays. Literally, the divide and conquer benefits of each Tiled PC-IG doing smaller Fields-Of-View directly correspond to super-high-resolution visual databases and 3D models of hitherto impossible fidelity. The cost per 24bit pixel of such ShAAdow Buffer™ displays is on the order of 218 pixels per dollar, vs many legacy solutions providing lower resolutions at 10X the cost. ShAAdow Buffer™ PC-IG technology has shattered the price performance barriers by providing a super-scalable tiled architecture only limited by the affordability of the COTS projectors.

 

The AAcuity™ ShAAdow Buffer™ PC-IG was developed under a Joint USN/USAF Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program. Please refer to our PC-IG Spec Sheet for more detailed system capabilities and contact SDS’s Advanced Technologies Division to discuss system availability and pricing.

AAcuity™ Products are Specifically Designed to:

 

Increase Fidelity, Performance and Reliability, and

 

Reduce Initial and Lifecycle Costs of State-of-the-art Vis / Sim Visual Solutions

SDS International (SDS), a member of the AEgis/EER Team, was awarded a task order through the STRICOM Omnibus Contract (STOC) to upgrade the Improved Moving Target Simulator (IMTS). SDS will provide state-of-the-art visual systems to replace the obsolete 1980s technology currently used in USA/USMC Stinger Improved Moving Target Simulators (IMTS). The upgrades will greatly enhance target engagement training of the Stinger Weapon System resulting in better-trained and more confident students.

 

Under this contract, SDS’s Advanced Technologies Division, Orlando, Florida, will provide the entire visual system including SDS’s state-of-the-art AAcuity ShAAdow BufferTM PC-Image Generation (IG) software developed under a NAWC/TSD Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program contract, PC hardware, and projectors. SDS will also provide various photo-realistic databases that permit training in a variety of environments and backgrounds to include dessert, arctic, mountains, grassy plains, urban, forest and jungle, and provide a large variety of models of friendly/enemy weapons systems needed to support effective training tasks. In all, SDS’s PC-IG, coupled with its databases and weapons models, will greatly enhance realistic training by providing the ability for Stinger crews to engage (identify, sort, track and destroy) aircraft at realistic ranges under varying environmental conditions (haze, fog, clouds, time-of-day, etc).

SDS International (SDS) was awarded a contract by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics (LMA), Marietta, GA, to provide “Real-World” Entity Models for use in the F-22 man-in-the-loop simulation, a tool used by the F-22 Air Combat Simulation (ACS) Integrated Product Team (IPT) to support the F-22 Program Team and the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center’s system and mission effectiveness evaluations of the F-22 weapon system. Under this contract, SDS is the exclusive provider of specialized F-22 visual models and numerous other aircraft and weapons models, all of which will be provided in industry-standard, OpenFlight format. The F-22 models include a highly-detailed, fully-articulated and animated external-view, and an internal cockpit-view with articulated flight surfaces. Other models (with varying levels of detail and articulations) include fighter and support aircraft such as F-15, F-16, Su-24, Su-27, Su-30, Mig-29, F-10, Rafale, KC-10, KC-135, E-3C, and IL-76, and various air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface weapons, decoys and flares. Recognizing SDS’s models as “Best-of-Breed,” LMA selected SDS to develop these high-fidelity models for use in the F-22 man-in-the-loop simulation to support F-22 high-rate production acquisition decision.

As a member of a team headed by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), SDS International, Inc. (SDS) has been awarded an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to support the Army’s Simulation, Training, & Instrumentation Command (STRICOM). SDS will provide specialized support in a broad range of Modeling & Simulation (M&S) and Instrumentation capabilities, including support of simulators, simulations, training systems/devices, instrumentation systems, test systems, experimentation, and advanced simulation concepts.

 

STOC Contract awards were made in four separate Lots covering support tasks in four different Domains: Lot I--Live Domain (real forces, real fields); Lot II--Virtual Domain (real forces, simulated fields); Lot III--Constructive Domain (simulated forces, simulated fields); and Lot IV--Test-Instrumentation. The CSC Team was one of the few to win a contract in each of the four Lots.

 

SDS is steadily building a name for itself in the world of simulation and training as a growing force in advanced technology development and integration. SDS’s Orlando-based Advanced Technologies Division specializes in PC-based image generation systems, visual and sensor databases and high-fidelity models, and the utilization/fusion of simulation, advanced training concepts, Joint BattleSpace InfoSphere management tools and concepts, Intelligent Agents, and internet/information technology.

SDS was awarded a contract to support upgrades to the aging F-16C Operational Flight Program (OFP) Candidate Prototype Station, called the Human Engineering Development System (HEDS), at the Ogden Air Logistics Center (ALC) Systems Integration Laboratory at Hill AFB, Utah. HEDS consists of an F-16 cockpit with associated switches and displays and a three-screen out-the-window collimated visual display. HEDS is used by Ogden ALC engineers and F-16 pilots to evaluate changes/modifications to F-16C OFPs prior to finalizing software designs and releasing them to the operational community. Specifically, SDS will provide its "Shadow Buffer" PC-IG software and associated PC-hardware for integration into the HEDS, replacing the current Silicon Graphics computer systems and UNIX-based visual displays, and existing development stations. "Shadow Buffer," developed by the company’s Advanced Technologies Division in Orlando, will provide increased reliability, maintainability and performance while allowing easy integration with other components of the HEDS. Work will be performed in Orlando with final assembly at Hill AFB.

SDS International (SDS) was awarded a contract to support development and implementation of the Operator-In-The-Loop Simulation and Visualization capability and the Appended Flight Simulator for the Preflight Integration of Munitions and Electronic Systems (PRIMES) Test Facility, 46th Test Wing, Eglin AFB, Florida. This award is a Phase III SBIR effort associated with SDS’s "Advanced Development of Shadow Buffer Control Modules for Visual Systems" contract. Under this new effort, SDS will customize its LiteFlite ™ Visual Interface Unit (VIU) for PRIMES PC-Image Generation (PC-IG) displays in support of Simulation Visuals, Appended Visual Systems, and Control Room Visualization. LiteFlite™ is a product of the company’s Advanced Technologies Division in Orlando, Florida.