ELECTRO-OPTIC SYSTEM FOR CROSSWIND MEASUREMENT
An electro-optic system, e.g., mounted to a weapon, measures down range winds and a range-to-target for compensating the ballistic hit point. The system may include an optical light source, collimated to generate a laser spot on the target. The system may include a wind measurement receiver that captures laser light scattered from the target. The captured light may be modulated by atmospheric scintillation eddies, producing optical patterns which change in time and move with the crosswind. These patterns may be analyzed by a processor using covariance techniques in either the time-domain or the frequency-domain to determine path-integrated crosswinds and associated errors. Ranging is done by measuring the time of flight of the laser pulse to the target collecting the scattered signal from the target. Compensated ballistic hit point, measurement errors and other data may be displayed on a micro-display digital eyepiece, or projected onto the direct view optics (DVO) of a riflescope so as to be overlaid in real-time on the optical image of the target.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/140,163, filed on Dec. 24, 2013, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a system and method for measuring downrange path integrated winds and a range-to-target for purposes of compensating a ballistic hit point.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Deer hunting sport has been practiced for many centuries. Better materials, better weapon designs and ammunitions allow hunters to engage targets at longer ranges and with more precision than was possible in the past. Typical rifles such as Remington® model 243 allow engagements to ranges greater than 400 meters. However, it has been recognized that there are a number of factors that affect the position of the projectile hit point. Two dominant sources of hit point errors are the uncertainty in the estimation of the magnitude and direction of path integrated crosswind and the range to target. The effect of these errors on the hit point grows substantially as the standoff range between the hunter and the target increases and/or the crosswind increases.
Recent art, as disclosed in US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0206836 A1, teaches the use of various forms of internal or external wind sensors at the user's position; all of which measure local winds. The assumption made in the previous art is that the downrange crosswinds are the same as measured by the local wind sensor. Experienced users know that this assumption is inaccurate because the projectile in flight integrates the winds as it flies along its trajectory to the target.
US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0206836 A1 teaches the option of using LIDAR or laser Doppler Anemometry (or velocimetry) for wind measurement. The LIDAR method cannot easily measure projectile path crosswinds unless measurements are made in three known off-axial directions and the path-average crosswind calculated from the vector addition. This means that the measurement is not made close to the path the projectile travels. In addition the system requires impractical laser powers to achieve high accuracy at even modest ranges because the back-scattered signal modulated from aerosols in the atmosphere is approximately 6 orders of magnitude smaller than a modulated signal scattered from a solid target surface. Clear days, with high visibility to 23 km, can further reduce the range of engagement. This imposes stringent demands on required laser power, laser current drivers, power supply and signal processing, making the system size too big for practical mounting on the weapon. The Laser Doppler Anemometry approach to measuring winds involves detecting the scatter from particulates passing through a small volume generated at the intersection of two interfering laser beams. It is therefore a point measurement, and does not provide path-integrated wind from the shooter to the target.
Downrange path-integrated crosswind measurements from the shooter to the target are necessary to accurately predict the hit point of a projectile. Because the opportunity to engage and hit the target is time sensitive, all measurements must be done in near real time to calculate and display the offset aim point (OAP) in the user's sight; otherwise the opportunity may be permanently lost.
Other prior art, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,196,828, proposes to measure downrange integrated crosswind using a laser collimated beam, single aperture and a single imager. In this approach, a high speed camera is used to image the laser spot on the target with a frame rate high enough to freeze the motion of the time varying scintillation pattern. The outbound laser beam is modulated by the atmospheric turbulence producing a time varying pattern of light and dark spots on the target that move and change with the wind. By measuring the time-lag covariance of geometrically-related pixel pairs in a series of recorded camera frames, the path-averaged crosswind can be calculated. This approach suffers from several drawbacks, including: 1) the effect of the return path turbulence on the signal scattered from the target acts as a noise source reducing the overall signal to noise ratio; 2) because the ability to resolve the light and dark spots on the target is limited by diffraction of the collecting lens aperture, large lens apertures (in excess of 100 mm) are required thus increasing the size of the system; 3) higher laser signal power is required because the returned signal spreads over many pixels due to aperture diffraction requiring higher optical power per pixel to measure the crosswind, thus significantly affecting battery life; 4) the approach is sensitive to the refractive index structure constant, Cn2 which reduces the size of the dark and light spots at values exceeding 10−13, requiring even higher optical resolution (i.e., an aperture larger than 100 mm and more optical power).
Other prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 8,279,287 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0128136, propose to measure downrange path integrated crosswind using a passive method. The technique uses at least two apertures with each aperture passively imaging the target without active light illumination. The atmospheric turbulence modulates the image of the target which appears wavy due to low-frequency wind motion. Using block matching processing approach, the transit time difference in the waviness of a single or multiple features from the two images of the target is measured to deduce the path-integrated crosswind. The approach requires multiple high contrast features on the target or sharp target edge that must first be identified using an imaging sensor and then processed to measure the time difference. Uniform targets without features or that blend into the background (camouflaged) cannot be resolved easily. To resolve the target features (approximately 1 cm) at 1 km, diffraction limited lens diameter of approximately 150 mm at visible wavelengths is required. The size of two such lenses makes the device impractical for mounting on a weapon.
Another approach is described in the article by Wang et al., “Wind measurement by the temporal cross-correlation of the optical scintillations,” Applied Optics V20, No. 23, Dec. 1981. This article describes a breadboard system for measuring the path averaged crosswind configured such that a laser source at one end transmits light through the atmospheric turbulence and is detected by a pair of side by side optical receivers located at the other end. This one-way transmission system method can measure path-integrated average crosswinds using several processing techniques. All of these processing techniques are based on observing the wind-driven motion of the scintillation pattern that transits across the line of sight. For the hunting application, the one-way transmission system is clearly impractical because the laser and optical receivers must both be on the same side (user's end) of the path.
When adapting this one-way transmission system to a two-way reflective system, one of the key problems encountered is the laser speckle noise generated from the illuminated target. Laser speckle is an interference effect that creates non-uniform distribution of the light intensity (light and dark spots) when laser light reflects back from a target surface that has a surface roughness smaller than the coherence length of the laser. The speckle problem does not exist in the one-way system because light does not scatter from a target. In the two-way case, the laser light is scattered from the target and collected by the receivers located near the light source. Speckles generated at the target and reflected back appear similar to the scintillation pattern signal, which is created by atmospheric turbulence and used for measuring winds. As a result the covariance function is disturbed by the interference from speckle effects causing large errors in the wind measurement. To address this problem, a laser source with a short coherence length, compared to the target roughness, is required.
Because the aforementioned article by Wang et al. described a field experiment, the system disclosed therein did not have any size, weight and power constraints to meet. Any practical weapon mounted device, demands a compact size that can be operated for extended periods on one battery charge. As the diameter of the receiver lens decreases to allow a more compact system package, the received signal level goes down and aperture diffraction spreads the focused image over a larger area (a higher number of pixels if a camera receiver is used) which results in reduced SNR per pixel even if the total energy over all pixels is summed. This limits the size of the receiver lens that can be used. In the same way, if a laser divergence of 100 micro radians is required to ensure that a laser spot appears on the target at maximum range, the diffraction limits the minimum achievable lens diameter at that wavelength. Large transmitter and receiver apertures impose size constraints in designing a weapon mounted or portable compact system package.
In designing a compact system to measure a path-weighted average crosswind and a range-to-target, it would be advantageous to provide the user with an offset aim point (OAP) indicator in the sight that considers the second order effects from other variables such as: temperature, pressure, humidity, rifle-cant and tilt, ammunition type, etc. Sensors to measure these parameters should be small enough to not impact the size of the package significantly. Furthermore the package must be rugged enough to withstand the shock from repeated weapon firings. These constraints impose yet more challenges in the innovation of a small and portable system useful for operation on or off a weapon.SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to an exemplary embodiment, the present invention is directed to a portable system including an optical transmitter, an optical receiver, a display device, and a processor. The processor is programmed to receive signals from the optical receiver that are representative of light transmitted by the optical transmitter and scattered back from a target; process the received signals to determine a path-weighted average crosswind between the transmitter and the target, and a range to the target; and calculate, based on the path-weighted average crosswind and the range, an offset aim point for display on the system device. This system may be mounted to a weapon such as a rifle, gun, archer's bow, or crossbow or may be used as a standalone system to measure path-weighted average crosswinds.
The optical transmitter may be configured to produce a collimated beam that may create a small light spot on the target. Also, the optical receiver may be configured to include first and second wind measurement channels separated from one another in a horizontal direction or in a vertical direction by a predetermined distance to measure the horizontal or vertical component of the crosswind. These first and second wind measurement channels may be used for detecting light reflected from the target which travels back toward the system through atmospheric turbulence eddies which modulates the light and move with crosswinds. Particularly, an image sensor may detect such light variations via said first and second wind measurement channels, respectively, at a measurable time difference. Since this time difference is dependent on the downrange crosswind speeds (as well as the predetermined distance separating the first and second wind measurement channels), the system is able to determine a path-weighted average crosswind in the horizontal direction by the measurement of transit time difference.
Furthermore, the processor may obtain repeated measurements of the aforementioned transit time difference based on the detection results of the first and second wind measurement channels. Based on these repeated measurements, the processor can calculate respective crosswind values and average them together to obtain the path-weighted average crosswind. Furthermore, the processor can calculate a confidence metric representing the accuracy of the determined path-weighted average crosswind based on a variance of the repeated measurements.
In addition, the processor may apply one or more weighting functions which are applied to the detection results of the first and second wind measurement channels, such weighting functions representing contributions from respective segments of a downrange crosswind. Multiple weighting functions may be applied by changing the divergence of the laser beam from the optical transmitter, or else by extracting laser beam spots of different angular sizes from image data captured by the wind measurement channels.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention. A brief description of these drawings is as follows.
An exemplary embodiment of a system, which is referred to hereinafter as the “XeroWind System” (or “XWS” for short), is designed for use as a replacement to the riflescope to not only measure the crosswind and range but also to provide an image of the target for acquisition and aiming. According to one alternate embodiment, however, the XWS may be configured as a clip-on so that the users may retain their direct-view riflescopes if desired. In another alternate embodiment, the XWS may be used as a standalone system mounted to a tripod for assisting a spotter. The system can measure the path-weighted average crosswind between the user and the target, the range to the target, and then, using the ammunition characteristics (mass, size, shape, muzzle velocity), atmospheric data and weapon angles, and other data, it calculates the azimuth and elevation offset aim points (OAP) to compensate for the wind deflection and ballistic drop of the ammunition used. The calculated offsets and the confidence metric may be displayed as icons overlaid in the target image which is used by the hunter to re-position the weapon aim-point. When the confidence icons have converged to approximately the size of the target, this can alert the hunter to fire the weapon. If the confidence icons are close to the target size and not changing rapidly, the user can be confident that the measurement will be valid for sufficient time to engage the target. The system may also provide for downloading the static target image or a short video clip onto a cell phone or other computing device.
The laser system 300 includes a semiconductor diode and collimation optics to generate a narrow beam on the order of 50 micro radians. It may also provide the illumination for imaging the target area during the night, e.g., when a holographic disperser is used in its path to produce a second larger divergence beam (on the order of 44 milli-radians). The 50 micro radian narrow laser beam is used for measuring range and wind using a ranging receiver 400 to detect and analyze the reflected returns when the laser is in the ranging mode, and two wind measurement channels 500 and 600, which are optical receivers with panchromatic image sensors that detect the laser returns when in the wind measurement mode. One wind measurement channel 600 may also image the target area on a high-resolution color image sensor 120 (also shown in
Prior to use, the laser beam may be aligned to the weapon barrel so that when the weapon is aimed at a target, the laser spot will be on the target. Light reflected/scattered from this spot travels through the atmosphere and a portion of this light may be collected by the optical receiver, which is comprised of the wind measurement channels 500, 600. In an exemplary embodiment, the receiver has two equal size apertures 102 and 103 mounted horizontally for measuring crosswind in one dimension (i.e., horizontal crosswind). Because of the atmospheric turbulence, the intensity of the light is modulated at the wind measurement channels 500, 600 creating a pattern of randomly sized bright and dark spots. This pattern is carried over by the path crosswind from one receiver to the other. The optical lens at aperture 102 of wind measurement channel 500 focuses the time varying pattern on the camera pixels or in a different configuration on a single PIN photodiode or APD (avalanche photodiode) detector. Similarly, the lens at aperture 103 of wind measurement channel 600 focuses the pattern on the camera pixels, PIN photodiode or APD. Due to the motion of the path crosswinds, the pattern arrives at the lens of aperture 103 at a slightly different time than at lens of aperture 102. The separation between the two apertures 102, 103 divided by the calculated transit time of the signal is proportional to the magnitude of the path integrated crosswind. The direction of the crosswind is determined by the transit direction of the pattern from aperture 102 to aperture 103. The design requires careful selection of the receiver separation allowing measurement of a large range of crosswinds while ensuring the scintillation pattern stays undisturbed during transit from aperture 102 to 103. In the preferred embodiment, if the center to center separation is selected to be approximately 50 mm, it is possible to measure path-integrated winds from 0.5 m/s to over 15 m/s.
To determine the transit time, a covariance technique may be used to calculate the downrange path integrated crosswinds from the detection results of the two wind measurement channels 500, 600. Four potential covariance-based techniques, any of which can be used for this purpose, are described in Wang et al., “Wind measurement by the temporal cross-correlation of the optical scintillations,” Applied Optics V20, No. 23, December 1981, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. All have their strengths and weaknesses. In one embodiment, the peak shifting method may be employed, and augmented with various noise filtering and signal averaging methods to improve the SNR. Utilizing the peak method, the time to transit between apertures is determined by calculating the cross covariance function of the two signals and noting the time at which the function peaks. The crosswind may then be calculated as the effective aperture separation divided by the time delay to the peak. A single wind measurement may typically be made within 0.5 to 1 seconds. When the user pushes a switch 1000 to initiate a wind measurement, the system first records several frames (nominally 10) with the laser off. The laser may then turn on, and the data acquisition may continue until a set number of frames have been recorded. The laser-OFF frames are averaged together and subtracted pixel-by-pixel from each of the laser-ON frames in order to remove any background light from non-laser sources that does not change with the wind. After background subtraction, the processor 1300 may identify the location of the laser image spot by its signal level above the other pixels. Because the laser spot is spread over several pixels the signals from all of the pixels with laser illumination are summed to give the total power captured by the receiver's pupil 102, 103.
The aforementioned embodiment utilizing the peak method provides a weighted average of the crosswind along the path from the shooter to target. Some portions of the path have a greater effect on the average than do others. The same is true of the crosswind effect on the deflection of the projectile. Wind near the shooter affects the trajectory more than the wind near the target. The effect is quantified in the ballistic influence function. Ideally, the wind measurement weighting function is designed to match the ballistic influence function. By optimizing the receiver aperture size and the divergence of the laser beam, an approximate match of the weighting function is made to the ballistic influence function, as will be described in more detail below in connection with
Once the path average integrated crosswind has been measured (by using the peak method or another cross-covariance technique), it may be processed according to a ballistic aim-point calculating software that provides an offset aim point (OAP). Various types of software, which are capable of providing such an OAP using the measured path integrated crosswind, are commercially available including PRODAS (by Arrow Tech Associates Inc.), ATrag™ (by Horus Vision, LLC) and others. When the OAP is determined, it is displayed by the micro-display 1100 to the users 207 via the eye piece 105 for re-aiming the weapon. Before an OAP can be calculated, inputs from the local sensors 800 (such as a digital magnetic compass 801, global positioning system 807, and/or the atmospheric data sensors 802, 803, 804 illustrated in
The laser diode 123 has a wavelength of 638 nm and typically a 28 mm diameter lens accepts the diverging radiation from the diode 123 which is then collimated to a 50 micro radian beam. To maximize light collection and to produce diffraction limited beam divergence, careful selection of the lens focal length provides optimized performance. Once collimated according to the optics in laser collimator 107, the laser beam is propagated through a beam steering module 106 to align it with the imaging optics, weapon bore or riflescope crosshair. In an exemplary embodiment, the laser system 300 operates in three modes: low light level imaging, ranging and wind measurement. All the modes are accessible to the user via switches on the system housing 1000.
A beam steering module 106 may be used in the collimated laser path to allow precision alignment of the laser beam in two orthogonal directions with the imaging optics of an existing riflescope mounted to the weapon. In an exemplary embodiment, the steering module 106 is a set of Risley prisms which provides better than 50 micro radian angular alignment resolution and stability from shock, vibration and temperature changes in retaining the alignment of the laser beam over long periods. The robustness of this approach stems from the fact that the Risley prisms provide a mechanical compression in the angular steering of the laser beam. For example, if two counter-rotating Risley prisms are mechanically rotated by 180 degrees, the laser beam may be moved linearly, only a degree, in one direction providing a compression of 180 times. To make the laser alignment user friendly, the design requires moving the laser beam linearly in the azimuth or elevation direction independently so that the desired position of the beam in angular space is achieved rapidly. To achieve this functionality, two sets of counter rotating Risley prisms are mechanically configured so that they may be rotated by two independent set of knobs (illustrated by reference numbers 108, 109 in
In an exemplary embodiment, an electronic crosshair may be generated in the XWS 100 for aiming the system on the target. Looking at a target using the crosshair in the view finder, the angular misalignment offset between the rifle bore and the system's laser aim point (i.e., the system line of sight (LOS)) may be determined. Because the ballistic offset aim point calculated using the wind and range measurements is independent of the system LOS, factory calibration of the XWS and rifle zeroing can yield the required offset without moving the laser beam using a steering device. This will be described in more detail in connection with weapon and system alignments below.Optical Receivers
According to an exemplary embodiment, the XWS 100 includes three optical receiver channels 400, 500, and 600. The components of each of these channels 400, 500, and 600 are shown in
In an exemplary embodiment, a separate aperture 104 is used with a lens that focuses the received narrow ranging pulses with a width of up to 70 ns onto 3 to 10 MHz bandwidth silicon APD (avalanche photodiode) receiver 122. In alternate embodiment, one of the wind measurement apertures 102, 103 could be used for ranging by inserting a beam splitter but this has the penalty of losing a part of the wind signal. The light passes thru a narrow band-pass filter to exclude background sunlight minimizing the shot noise generated while maximizing the signal to noise ratio. Range is determined by conventional round trip time of flight measurement known to those familiar in the art. Range accuracy is improved by both averaging multiple single pulses in flight to improve SNR and by interpolating the received signal pulse using for example a 200 MHz clock to yield a total range uncertainty of ˜1.5 meters.
During ranging, the laser 123 is rapidly pulsed at a high peak power for periods up to a second. The returns from the outgoing pulses are timed to give the range as is practiced commonly in laser rangefinders. To improve the SNR the returns from multiple pulses are averaged. The averaging time varies with range and conditions. The ranging process is automatically terminated once a result with an SNR sufficient to assure required accuracy has been achieved. For example, the laser can be pulsed with a peak power of 300 mw, pulse width 70 nsec, and 125 kHz repetition rate. Using multiple-pulse averaging the link budget closes out to 1000 meter with an averaging time of approximately 500 milliseconds. The time reduces to less than 1 millisecond for a 200 meter range. Once the range is determined with the desired accuracy (see operation 3202 of
As described earlier, any of the four different covariance processing techniques described in Wang et al., (“Wind measurement by the temporal cross-correlation of the optical scintillations,” Applied Optics V20, No. 23, December 1981, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference), may be used to provide a path-weighted average value of the wind. In each of these techniques, the weighting function is dependent on: the laser beam divergence and separation between the two receive apertures, the wavelength of the laser light and the range. When the size of the laser spot (beam divergence) is much greater than the lens separation the weighting function peaks close to the shooters end of the path and has little sensitivity at the far end. If the size of the laser spot is significantly smaller than the lens separation, the sensitivity of the weighting function peaks near the target end. Proper choice of the system parameters provides a weighting function for the wind measurement that approximately matches the ballistic influence function of the bullet.
In some situations, when the winds are uniform along the path, the average of a single weighting function is adequate to provide accurate results. In other situations, when the winds are not uniform due to non-uniform terrain, buildings, trees, or hills that block or channel the wind, the accuracy of the single weighting function approach is somewhat degraded. Accuracy in the non-uniform wind case can be improved by making measurements with multiple different weighting functions, and combining the results.
The different weighting functions can be generated by changing the separation between the two receiver lenses 102, 103, or by changing the laser divergence to change the spot size of the laser, or else by analyzing the angular profile of the laser spot size. Changing the separation of the receivers during wind measurement of about 1 sec is considered impractical. However, the other two approaches are practical with each having their own limitations. The change in laser beam divergence can be achieved by using multiple fixed divergence beams (which requires additional light sources, thus impacting costs) or with a piezo driven positioner on the collimator axis of a single laser source.
In another embodiment, instead of varying the laser beam divergence, it may be easier to analyze the angular profile of the spot size in the image plane of the camera using software instead of adding hardware. The laser spot is imaged onto the image sensor of the camera and spans several pixels. The outputs of all the illuminated pixels are summed to get the signal for chosen beam divergence. As shown in
In the embodiment illustrated in
The image resolution that can be provided by the “digital scope” is comparable to that of existing riflescopes because both are limited by the diffraction from the aperture size. Assuming a 35 mm riflescope and 35 mm apertures for the XWS both will have a 38 μrad resolution limit at 550 nm wavelength. Assuming for an example that the camera sensor 120 is an Aptina™ AR1411HS with a 4620×3084 pixel array and a 2.86 μm pixel pitch, and the receiver lens is 35 mm diameter with a 100 mm focal length; the instantaneous field of view (IFOV) of a single pixel will be 28.6 μrad. This is less than the 38 μrad diffraction-limited resolution. The system will therefore be aperture diffraction limited rather than pixel limited providing a smooth image without pixel grains.
If the entire pixel array is displayed to the user 207, the FOV (field of view) would be 7.6×5.1 degrees. If instead, the image displayed to the user is circular to emulate the view normally seen through a riflescope, the FOV may be 5.1 degrees in diameter. This FOV can be used for searching a target. For closer inspection and aiming at the target, a pushbutton switch can be activated to apply digital zoom in a series of steps.
Nighttime imaging without the use of an image intensifier night-vision device is made possible by a clip-on holographic diffuser, which may be disposed in the path of collimated laser beam 130 (
In summary, the electro-optic system, which is configured in an exemplary embodiment of the invention to measure path-integrated crosswinds, uses at least two apertures 102 and 103 to collect the laser light 116 scattered back from the target 115 onto the digital wind detectors 113, 119. In an exemplary embodiment, the digital wind detector 113, 119 is a CMOS camera. Camera pixels illuminated by the laser spot 116 are summed into a single measurement (see operation 3307 of
In an exemplary embodiment, the electro-optic system is designed to measure range and crosswind up to 1000 meters. This requires a laser 123 with CW power of 170 milli-watt at 638 nm laser wavelength with beam divergence=50 μrad produced by a 28 mm collimating lens and the reflected light collected by a 35 mm receiver lens (same as a commonly used in deer hunting riflescope) with a camera frame rate up to 1000 Hz and noise floor 25 e/pixel/frame. This design is optimized by conducting round trip optical power budget analysis for required signal noise ratio of 10 dB while also optimizing the weighting functions along the path to closely match the influence function of the projectile. Other laser wavelengths in the visible or near invisible (Infrared/IR) range could also be used but the design would be somewhat different. For ranging, the same laser provides a peak power of 300 milli-watt at 70 ns pulses that may be repeated at 125 kHz to ensure a single pulse in flight to the target and back. The returned signal is collected with a 15 mm aperture lens that focuses the signal on a 0.5 mm APD receiver with a bandwidth of 3 to 10 MHz. The system parameters for both ranging and wind measurement modes in the preferred embodiment, are shown below in Table 1.
The objective in an exemplary embodiment of the invention is to replace the conventional riflescope with a system that provides automatic compensation for wind and range errors while providing optical performance that matches or exceeds that of conventional riflescopes. Accordingly, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the XWS 100 can be implemented as a “digital riflescope” or “digital scope,” providing the user with a micro-display 1100 for viewing the target 115 and surrounding area (e.g., with the determined OAP and other calculated parameters overlaid).
Diffraction sets an ultimate limit to optical performance of conventional riflescopes. Diffraction limited resolution is inversely proportional to aperture size so resolution improves with the size of the aperture. In view of this, we compare the performance of a XWS-based “digital riflescope” 200, designed in accordance with principles of the present invention, to a conventional riflescope with the same aperture size. A series of products with varying performance can be fielded to compete with the range of conventional scopes currently available. For our comparison, we assume an aperture size of 35 mm. The diffraction limited resolution for a 35 mm aperture is 38 grad which becomes the effective resolution of both the riflescope and the XWS-based digital riflescope 200. Other performance parameters are FOV and magnification. For a typical 35 mm riflescope the magnification zooms from 2.6× to7.8× with corresponding FOV from 7.2 to 2.6 deg.
Components of the digital scope 200 shown in
Table 2, provided below, shows the calculated performance parameters of a XWS-based digital riflescope 200 designed to replace a 35 mm riflescope. The key parameters to achieve images indistinguishable from those seen through a conventional riflescope are number of pixels and the pixel pitch of both the image sensor and the micro-display. The parameters used in Table 2 list the state of the art image sensor and micro-display. For both components the performance will improve with time while the cost declines.
The display assembly consists of an eyepiece 105 through which the hunter views a high resolution micro-display 1100. The micro-display 1100 is driven by the processor 1300 and provides a digital image of the target 115 and surrounding area. During wind measurement, the laser spot 116 is also shown.
The signal processor 1300 is the central control for the XWS 100. It may receive commands from the user via a series of pushbutton switches 1000. It may provide the switching between imaging and wind measurement, the digital zoom, control of the laser current required for either ranging, illumination, or wind measurement, collects and stores information on all parameters needed for the ballistic calculations, acquires the image, wind, and range measurement data, and met data, analyzes the data to determine range and crosswind, displays the image and range, and the aim point offsets.
In an exemplary embodiment, when the system 100 is operated without the riflescope, the digital camera provides imaging at video rates for use in target acquisition.
Referring again to
One particular embodiment may use the peak shifting method of 3314 and 3318. This approach determine a time delay tp at which the covariance function has its peak value in 3314, and then determines the crosswind speed W in 3318. This is done by dividing the value of the horizontal separation ρ between the two channels 500(A) and 600(B) by the peak delay time tp.
As an alternative to the peak shifting technique, a slope method may be employed. If this technique is employed, the value of the covariance function slope at a time delay of zero is determined in 3315, and used in 3319 to calculate the crosswind speed W from the expression W=k multiplied by the slope at zero, where k is an instrument constant.
Another alternative for covariance processing is the Briggs method option, which determines the time tc at which the cross-covariance curve intersects with the auto-covariance function according to 3313. The crosswind speed W is then determined in 3317 by dividing the horizontal separation ρ of the channels 500(A) and 600(B) by 2 times the crossover time tc.
As shown in
The covariance calculations in 3310 and 3311 may be carried out using the data collected over the time tw. To increase the measurement accuracy, however, multiple measurements may be made and averaged (while discarding improbable wind thresholds) to give the final answer. The data acquisition may continue for as long as the user maintains pressure on the wind measurement switch. Calculation of the first wind measurement result begins at tw after the wind measurement switch is activated, and the result is displayed once the data is processed. The typical value of tw is 500 msec but depending on the design can be longer or shorter. During the processing the data collection may continue and, after the processing of the first measurement is complete, the second calculation begins. The data for the second calculation consists of shifting the 500 msec selected for processing 50 msec ahead as illustrated in
It is contemplated that the crosswind can be measured with accuracy better than 0.5 m/sec to insure a high hit probability with the first round. Under most circumstances a point or local measurement of the wind is seen to vary significantly faster than a second or so compared to the projectile flight time of 2 to 3 sec. This would imply that the wind measurement would be latent and inaccurate to get a hit. Fortunately, what determines the projectile deflection is the path-averaged wind which changes at a much longer time constant than a second. The path averaged wind changes at a slower rate than the local wind because it is the average of all sequential local wind fluctuations over the entire path that the bullet experiences. For example if 1 m/s wind changes downrange at different rates, the overall rate will be slower than the slowest rate.
The XWS 100 makes multiple wind measurements and computes a cumulative average in order to reduce the measurement error which increases the accuracy. The averaging improves the accuracy so long as the variance of the individual readings is dominated by measurement error. At some time depending on the conditions however, the variance is due to actual changes in the path averaged wind. Extending the averaging time beyond this time increases the difference between the measured and the actual wind the projectile experiences in flight resulting in decrease of the hit probability.
The path-integrated wind, which is averaged over the time of projectile flight, changes with time. Field observations reveal that under some conditions the measured value remains effectively valid for 10 seconds or even longer. However, under other head or tail wind conditions, when the crosswinds are not full value, the value changes faster than 10 seconds. To avoid “obsolete” measurement the averaging of the measurements is done as a cumulative average up to 5 seconds and after that over the most recent 5 seconds of data. According to exemplary embodiments of the invention, the measurements, calculations, and display of the results may be automatically provided to the user within seconds, thereby providing a distinct advantage over systems where the time lag between wind measurement and firing time exceeds the time stability of the wind.
The signals derived by the summation of pixels surrounding the laser spots (e.g., in 3307 of
In an imaging mode, the sunlight background is the primary signal, along with the laser spot 116 on the target that provides confidence to the hunter that the laser 123 is aligned and has not shifted. To deal with the fact that laser signal is small compared to the sunlight, the image displayed to the user is the result of adding to the raw image data an enhanced laser image. The enhanced laser image is zero at all pixels outside of the area immediately surrounding the laser spot and for those pixels within the spot the pixel values are set close to saturation values.2D Wind Algorithms:
Exemplary embodiments of the invention, as described above, are intended to measure the crosswind in the horizontal plane. In applications where there may be significant vertical winds, as well as horizontal winds, the aforementioned embodiments can be modified. Particularly, a third wind measurement channel can be added to the XWS 100 in such manner that the added channel is displaced vertically from the others 500 and 600. Thereafter, the same covariance techniques as described above in connection with
It is also possible to measure crosswind speeds in both vertical and horizontal directions with a single aperture and channel. This approach tracks the movement of the scintillation pattern falling on the target due to the turbulence encountered on the trip from the shooter to the target. As described earlier, this technique requires a significantly more powerful laser and suffers from noise created by the turbulence encountered on the return trip. In the single-aperture approach, the covariance calculations are made between the signals from individual pixel-pairs in both directions.
The present invention provides a method and an instrument to measure two dimensional (azimuth and elevation) downrange winds from the shooter to the target, by integrating and averaging the effects of the wind changes and direction similar to that experienced by the bullet. It is noted that the winds in a third dimension, i.e., head or tail winds, may be experienced. However, such winds have a small effect on the hit point unless the shooter is moving rapidly at speeds greater than 30 meters per second toward or away from the targetTracking Moving Targets:
For moving targets, the XWS 100 may also be configured to track the target and generate a lead offset to compensate for the movement that is displayed as an icon 5008 (
Now reference will be made again to
According to an exemplary embodiment, the processor 1300 may perform any necessary ballistic calculations by solving well-known equations of motion for a projectile in flight. Such equations, and standard solution methods, can be found in McCoy, R., L., Modern Exterior Ballistics, Schiffer Military History, Atglen, Pa., 2012, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference. The inputs to these equations may come from a combination of the target range and crosswind measurements, as described above in connection with
Now, referring again to ballistic calculations of 3400 in
Using as inputs the aforementioned collected data, in combination with the target range and path-weighted average crosswind measured according to
The user may interface with the XWS 100 using pushbutton switches 1000 (
Alternatively, all of the setup and calibration data could be received via a wireless I/O system 900 (
The system 100 runs on battery power 700 for extended periods. Because it is implemented as a portable rifle mounted system in exemplary embodiments, the weight of the battery is a significant parameter. Hence, minimizing the power draw is a prime objective. The internal scope design with the camera image sensor 120 as detector allows operation with a 170 mw CW laser. The laser 123 does not require cooling. This significantly increases the electrical efficiency to greater than 25% and hence reduces power draw from the battery. Low power capability is made possible by the use of multiple aperture approach rather than single aperture approach and using a CMOS image sensor 113, 119 rather than an APD detector, as the detector for wind measurement.XWS and Weapon Alignments
In the XWS system, the aim point optical axis of the laser 123 and the optical axis of each wind measurement channel 500 and 600 in
According to an exemplary embodiment, the factory alignment may include a “weapon zeroing” operation, illustrated as 2800 in
To find the center of the rifle bore, two methods may be utilized. In the first method, the user 207 commands the device 100 to enter a laser zero setup mode. This causes, in reference to
When the XWS 100 is used with an existing riflescope as a piggyback device, the alignment process is the same as described above except the riflescope must first be boresighted with the rifle bore. This may be done by firing a group of shots or using a boresighting laser inserted into rifle bore. To display the crosshair and offset aim point in the riflescope sight, an optical display assembly (such as an OLED or LCOS) mounted in front of the riflescope may be used.
If beam steering module 106 is integrated with the XWS 100 and set to steer equally in either direction, the misalignment tolerances may be loosened up by performing a “laser zeroing” allowing the laser line of sight (LOS) in to be aligned with the weapon zero boresight. In this procedure, the user 207 commands the device 100 to enter a Laser Zero setup mode, as illustrated in 2900 of
Once the laser aim point (i.e., laser LOS) or the electronic crosshair is aligned with the weapon zero 5001, a pushbutton switch may be activated to cause the processor 1300 to redefine the co-ordinate system zero to the current position of the electronic crosshair zero 5001. The XWS 100 is then sighted-in. The laser aim point of the XWS 100 is properly aligned to the rifle bore and its angular position known to the user during operation.Operating Procedure
In the preferred embodiment, the XWS 100 is mounted in place of the riflescope, and is used for target acquisition as well as wind/range measurement. Once a target has been identified, the hunter places the crosshair 5001 on the target and initiates a wind measurement 3300 (
In the above-described embodiments, the path-weighted average crosswind is calculated in the time domain, i.e., based on a covariance technique which determines a time delay of the signal received by the dual wind measurement channels 500, 600, to obtain parameters such as the offset aim point (OAP) and the confidence metric. However, in an alternative embodiment described herein below, a different method may be used to calculate the path-weighted average crosswind, which is based on frequency analysis of the time-varying scintillation fade signal. This alternative embodiment can be advantageous in that it only requires the use of a single wind measurement channel. By eliminating the need for multiple wind measurement channels, the size and cost of the system can be reduced, which is desirable for both commercial and military applications.
However, as illustrated in
Further, unlike previous embodiments, the signal processor 1300A in the XMS 100A of
Crosswind=m(Cn2k2L)−0.6f Eq. (1)
where m is a calibration constant of the system, Cn2 is a refractive index structure parameter, k is the wave number of the laser, L is the range to the target, and f is the frequency of the scintillation fades. This equation is derived for weak scintillation conditions (i.e., Cn2<10−15) and does not include the effects from aperture averaging. Therefore, the crosswinds when estimated are subject to errors as the turbulence strength increases and approaches saturation (Cn2>10−13). The calibration constant m, i.e., the parameter in Eq. (1) which relates the wind to the scintillation frequency, changes significantly due to the presence of smaller eddies as the turbulence strength increases. For weak turbulence, however, the calibration constant m stays relatively constant.
Previous systems have attempted to solve the problem of wind measurement errors at saturated scintillation due to changes to the calibration constant (see U.S. Pat. No. 7,739,823 B2, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference), but rely on an incoherent source of a relatively large size (300 μrad) and a large receiver diameter (80 mm).
However, the XMS 100A of
In summary, similar to previous embodiments described above, the XMS 100A of
Furthermore, the system package of
Now, reference will be made to
The parameters m and k of Eq. (1) are known prior to each crosswind measurement performed in accordance with process 4000. Range L and Cn2 parameter will not be constant, so they will be measured for each wind measurement according to process 4000 The laser wavenumber k is a fixed value, i.e., a known wavelength design parameter. The calibration constant m, on the other hand, can be determined by conducting a field experiment under controlled conditions, i.e., in which the range L and refractive index structure parameter Cn2 are known and kept constant. By design, the wind measurement receiver aperture and laser spot size are chosen to minimize the effect of scintillation saturation on the calibration constant m, so that this parameter m can be assumed to remain constant without significant errors in wind measurement.
A field experiment for determining the calibration constant m for the XMS 100A will now be described in more detail. In such an experiment, a rifle can be aimed at a fixed point on a target at a distance of L, and the horizontal deflection of the bullet due to crosswinds can be measured as the deviation of the hit point from the target or aim point. A number of shots may be fired under varying wind conditions, and data regarding the bullet deviation versus the detected scintillation signals for each of the shots may be collected. For instance, the experimental “ballistic crosswind” for each shot can be obtained using a ballistic calculator and the measured bullet deviation for that bullet type. The measured bullet deviation can thus be used to determine the path-averaged crosswind. The detected scintillation signals may be converted into a frequency for each shot, e.g., in a similar manner as will be described below in connection with process 4000.
Referring again to
As shown in operation S4025 of
Thereafter, in S4030, the frequency f of the scintillation fluctuations are calculated based on the scintillation signals or patterns represented in the frames captured during the fixed time tw. This frequency f can be calculated in one of several ways, including: (1) a zero-crossing approach, which obtains a time-varying scintillation signal from the frames and counts the number of times the signal crosses the mean value per unit time; (2) using a Fast Fourier Transform; and (3) calculating the half-width of the auto-covariance function, which is inverse to the frequency. Here, it will be assumed that option (1), i.e., the zero-crossing approach, will be used to calculate the frequency fin S4030. A more detailed explanation of this approach will be provided below in connection with
As shown in
After the raw scintillation signal is obtained (S4130), the signal may be further be processed according to operation S4140 in
It is also possible, as part of these repeated measurements, to repeatedly calculate the Cn2 parameter (S4025). However, as illustrated by the dotted line connection S4020 and S4030, it is also possible to avoid the repeated measurement of Cn2 in addition to the frequency f if desired.
After the crosswind magnitude(s) is calculated (and averaged together), S4045 also includes an operation of determining the crosswind direction, which may be necessary in order to estimate the offset aim point.
In this alternative embodiment, which is described above in connection with
It should be noted that the flowcharts of
According to a further embodiment, the XMS system 100, 100A in the above embodiments can be specially configured for use with existing riflescopes, thereby allowing the user to retain the direct view optics (DVO) which do not rely on battery power. An example of a system 100B according to the further embodiment is illustrated in
As illustrated in
Similar to previous embodiments, the XMS 100B in the further embodiment can be used by illuminating a target with a laser beam, measuring the range and crosswinds, and calculating and displaying the ballistic solution (including, e.g., offset aim point (OAP), average winds, azimuth and elevation offsets, and range to target). However, the ballistic solution information can be displayed using a built-in symbology projector 200, which overlays the information overtop the DVO image, e.g., as symbols, numerals and/or alphabetic characters. This overlaid information may prompt the user to re-aim the weapon by aligning the OAP on the target image, instead of the original crosshair position. This feature has an advantage in that it allows the user to keep the eyes on the target during engagements. Because the symbology projector 200 is designed to be located in-line and in front of the riflescope objective lens, it does not degrade the optical imaging resolution (modulation transfer function (MTF)) or introduce blur or affect the original twilight factor of the riflescope.
Particularly, as information regarding the ballistic solution (OAP, confidence metric, range to target and/or other symbology) is created and activated by the processor 1300B of
The projected image of the LCOS chip 210 includes lit-up pixels with the symbology of the ballistic information. These pixels (i.e., symbology) are presented to the user in the field of view of the riflescope 8000. Because image projected is in the object plane, the effect of riflescope zooming, which changes the size of the riflescope reticle, tracks with the projected offset aim point, confidence indicator and other symbology displayed. Visible light from the target passes through and around the symbology projector's 200 beam splitter 104.
1. A system encased in a housing comprising:
- an optical transmitter;
- an optical receiver;
- a display device; and
- a processor controller programmed to: receive signals from the optical receiver that are representative of light transmitted by the optical transmitter and scattered back from a target, process the received signals to measure: a range to the target, a frequency of signal fluctuations, and a refractive index structure parameter, calculate a path-weighted average crosswind and an offset aim point based on the range, the frequency and the refractive index structure parameter,
- wherein the offset aim point is displayed to a user via the display device.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is mounted on one of: a rifle, gun, tripod, archer's bow and a crossbow.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the optical transmitter produces a dual divergence laser beam including:
- a narrow divergence beam to illuminate the target in daytime, and
- a larger divergence beam to illuminate the target during nighttime.
4. The system of claim 3, wherein the narrow divergence beam produces a laser spot whose diameter is substantially 150 micro-radians or less.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the optical receiver comprises a wind measurement channel including a receiver aperture, and
- wherein light from the laser beam, which is reflected from the target and travels back toward the system via said wind measurement channel, is detected by a digital imaging sensor to measure energy fluctuations in the reflected light incident on the receiver aperture,
- wherein a value of the measured frequency is derived based on a number of zero-crossings associated with the measured energy fluctuations, said value being used to calculate a corresponding magnitude of a crosswind.
6. The system of claim 5, wherein said digital imaging sensor comprises a CMOS camera.
7. The system of claim 6, wherein the wind measurement channel has an aperture whose diameter is substantially 60 millimeters or less.
8. The system of claim 5, wherein the refractive index structure is calculated by:
- detecting a centroid of the time-varying laser spot over multiple frames detected by said digital imaging sensor;
- tracking a position of the centroid as a function of time; and
- computing a variance of the tracked centroid position.
9. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor is programmed to:
- obtain repeated measurements of the frequency of signal fluctuations over a given time span;
- calculate respective crosswind magnitudes for the repeated measurements; and
- determine the path-weighted average crosswind by averaging the calculated magnitudes.
10. The system of claim 9,
- wherein the processor is further programmed to calculate a confidence metric representing the accuracy of the determined path-weighted average crosswind based on a variance of the repeated measurements, and
- wherein the display device outputs data indicative of the value of the confidence metric.
11. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor is further programmed to determine a crosswind direction by:
- detecting a time-varying laser spot over multiple frames by said digital imaging sensor;
- in each of the frames, dividing said laser spot into left and right halves and summing the pixel signals in each of the left and right halves to obtain left-half and right-half time-varying signals; and
- calculating a time delay of a cross-covariance between the left-half and right-half time-varying signals to determine crosswind direction.
12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a riflescope with direct view optics (DVO), wherein the display device comprises a symbology projector which projects said offset aim point as an overlay on the target image viewed through the DVO.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein the symbology projector is mounted in-line with the riflescope.
14. The system of claim 12, wherein the symbology projector comprises an LCOS chip.


text:
His is iconic; it's apart of his demeanor, his stage poise and presence; it's a part of the energy that makes you want to head bang the second he begins to do so. It falls; it covers his face almost as if he can't see anything, yet he continues to seduce the audience with his deep, dark, and mysterious beats. My long pink hair sways back and forth with his and, strangely, I feel more at peace than ever before.
It was a night I had waited almost year for. The cancellation of Electric Zoo's last day had prevented Seven Lions from playing here in New York, and now he was back. The Grand Ballroom at Webster Hall began to fill as Tommie Sunshine preceded with almost a 2-hour set, hyping up the crowd with his consistently energetic tracks. Surprisingly, he even threw down a remix of Jack U, Jungle Bae, which was released less than a week prior.
Gold-lettered mylar balloons spelling out "Seven Lions" floated on one side of the balcony and "Casablanca" on the other. This would be Jeff's second EP release on Casablanca Records and the anticipation, on all ends, was through the roof. Earlier in the night I had the chance to chat with him and now I was about to see all of his words play out. The place fell silent, the stage fell black and without hesitation, a beaming white light from behind outlined his silhouette and The Throes of Winter began to play.
Throwing some progressive beats into the mix at first, he played out each of the six tracks he was there to debut. A beautiful short-haired blonde woman in a long black dress took the stage and The End began to play. This must be HALIENE, the woman I've heard seduce my ear drums for the past week via iPod. I undoubtedly started to sing every lyric along with her, taking time to bounce to the melody at the opportune moments.
Not much later a male vocalist had now taken the stage. Being an AFI fan back in high school, I knew this wasn't Davey so it had to be Sombear. As one of the more upbeat track on The Throes of Winter, A Way to Say Goodbye got the crowd on their feet, rocking out to every note. He then sent us into a time warp by playing some of his older tracks such as Days to Come, Myon and Shane 54, strangers, and remix of Above and Beyond, You Gotta Go.
Toward the end of his set was when the final, and best, surprise came. Like rain droplets pinging a lake, the intro to December began and lead singer of AFI, Davey Havok took the stage. The crowd went absolutely insane. My first though: "How did I miss him in the green-room earlier?!" More head banging over the balcony edge ensued and I was in an absolute state of euphoria.
Seven Lions went on to spin the rest of his tracks on stage alone and ended with the filthy Dubstep we all knew was bottled up inside. At one point, as I stood in a trance, a guy walks up to me and says, "This guy is fucking beautiful" and all I could do was nod and continue to stare.
So, first off, why New York for the EP release party?
I'd say it's a mix of having the label here and because E Zoo got canceled. I feel like I needed to play. We've been talking about playing in New York for a while now so it just all came together.
The Throes of Winter has an intro and outro that are very classical sounding. Can you explain that a little bit?
Yeah. I downloaded this synth called cinematic strings and I've always been into Classical music and I just wanted to make a really cool intro and outro. The intro is actually the melody from "December" kind of reimagined and the outro is the melody from 'A Way To Say Goodbye' kind of reimagined because I wanted to make something a little extra. I didn't know what I wanted to do with those track right away I just knew I wanted to reimagine those songs into something cinematic and more listenable on people's downtime.
Without the lyrics like on every other track.
Exactly. If you listen to 'December' and then listed to 'The Throes of Winter' right after you'll hear some of the same melodies. I mean, it goes in a lot of different directions but it's the main theme of it is 'December.'
Speaking of December, it has the very recognizable vocals of Davey Havok. Did you listen to AFI when you were growing up?
Fuck yeah. My screen name was AFireInside; my AIM screen name. So, yes. AFI was huge. I used to draw all their album covers too. I would re-draw them and put them in my binder. You know back in the day when you had those binders...
With the clear covers!
And everyone would put pictures and things in there.
Yeah. So that was AFI in my binder.
So then how does it feel to work with him now after being such a fan when you were younger?
It's surreal. I never thought that would happen and now that it has happened, it feels so logical and it makes so much sense. I mean, it's just bizarre.
How did it happen?
So, I had the instrumental and I thought, 'This song is probably going to be an instrumental because I can't imagine who would really work on this.' And the label was like, 'Well, ya know, Davey from AFI is into electronic music. What do you think about him trying it out?' I'm like, 'Okay, that's insane. I don't know if he'd be interested but let's reach out.' Then, he sent back a demo that was insane so we went down to LA, tracked it, and worked with him. It turns out we're both into industrial music and we used to go to those shows all the time so we've kind of been in the same circle.
You grew up in LA right? Or in Southern California?
Yeah, Southern California. But I lived up in Oakland for a little while, around the same time he did. When I was in college I was up in Oakland and we were going to the same clubs at the same time.
With a title like The Throes of Winter, the somber track names, and listening through it, this kind of sounds like a story of lost love. Can you explain where the emotion behind this EP comes from?
Well, everyone experiences loss in a different ways. I mainly focus on the melody and how the music makes me feel and let the vocalists come up with the lyrics. Like 'December' was called December before it went out. 'A Way to Say Goodbye' came back as A Way to Say Goodbye. At first.. I'm not a lyricist at all. I mean, I have a set of rules. Like, when I work with a vocalist I'll say, 'hey, it needs to be within these kind of boundaries that make it timeless.' I don't want it to have anything to do with like, 'Hey, let's party tonight' or anything that has to do with 2015.
None of your tracks are like that though. They're all pretty timeless.
Yeah, because I wouldn't let that happen. So, other than that I just let the vocalists come up with their own lyrics.
Are there any tracks that didn't make the cut that will be released as singled later this year?
*smirks but stays quiet*
You can't say?
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, well, yes. It won't be a single but I would say there might possibly be another... if The Throes of Winter is the throes of winter then there are also other seasons.
So a sequel then?
Alrighty then. So, out there tonight you're going to play the whole EP, obviously, but what else are you going to throw our way?
Yeah, I'll play a lot of older stuff. I think I'll focus on the darker stuff tonight.
Great, well I'm excited to hear it! See you out there!
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domain: artistic


text:
Four retail employees in Port Elizabeth have allegedly been subjected to a degrading underwear inspection at work. They say it was carried out by their employer, who had accused the women of “dirtying” the staff toilet with menstrual blood.
“I don’t know how I got through the day. But I know I was crying in between helping customers. The more I thought about it, the more humiliated I felt because something about what happened felt so wrong. I know I didn’t have to let her check me. But without thinking at the time, I was so desperate to prove my innocence in the matter,” said one of the employees.
The women work at JA Floral Distributors, a florist, coffee shop and party accessories store in Fairview that employs about 30 people. The employee filed a complaint with the retailer’s human resources department and the manager has been suspended.
“I was raised in an environment where you are taught your periods should not be public knowledge. And you must keep clean all the time. And is seen as a private and a personal matter. But at JA Floral on 4 September 2020, I had to make my period public knowledge, pull down my underwear, show how my period looks, my private part out in the open and have my personal matter, privacy and my womanhood discussed at my workplace,” said the woman in a written complaint to the human resources manager.
Dominic de Freitas, the son of owner Jorge de Freitas, allegedly summoned the four black women to the company kitchen on the morning of Friday 4 September. They were reportedly told that one of them had left menstrual blood in a toilet and not flushed it, and that person was a “pig” who would be caught and exposed. The women were then sent back to work.
A day of indignity
At lunchtime that day, some of the employees were again called to the kitchen, this time allegedly by Dominic’s sister Natasha de Freitas, 29, and asked to disclose if they were menstruating. This was done in the presence of her brother. One of the workers was told to sign a written warning after she disclosed that she was menstruating. When she refused to do so, the workers were reportedly made to go into the toilet with Natasha and pull down their pants in front of her.
Natasha de Freitas allegedly then told the women to keep quiet about the incident, saying “none of this ever happened”. The employees went back to work for the rest of the day. Some of the women are in their mid-40s and feel humiliated at having been forced to expose their genitals to a younger woman. They say their colleague, who is in her early 20s, is traumatised.
“I don’t want to even think about this incident anymore. It was so traumatising and I was not even one of the people who was inspected. But I felt sick all weekend, and depressed,” said a second employee.
A third added: “This time, Natasha went way out of line. Ever since she came, she seems to be trying to make a point that this is a family business. I was not even surprised when she told us to take off our panties because the way she always searches us after work, you can tell she wants to go under our skirts. It is actually sexual assault. Is it because we are black?”
“I may be hungry, but I am not stupid,” said the aggrieved employee, referring to the reduced wages of R2 000 a month she has been earning during the Covid-19 lockdown, during which the store’s opening hours have been limited. Despite not earning enough to feed herself properly, she knows her rights, she said, and she shouldn’t have to accept underwear inspections just because she needs the job.
“I have had headaches since that day. We, as blacks, have been taught to treat people with respect. I have never checked even my daughter’s period, because I know it is private. But we have to tolerate this because we have no other jobs. They have even been threatening to put cameras in the toilets before this. Our whole families are so cross. This has to stop. I am so hurt and they really need to pay for dragging our dignity like that.”
JA Floral human resources manager Zelda Collins said the perpetrator has been suspended. But she would not confirm that it was Natasha de Freitas.
“The person has been suspended pending a hearing. There is going to be a grievance hearing and a disciplinary hearing held, and then obviously … she has actually already apologised to them. Nothing formal, as she was asked to leave the premises,” said Collins.
The disciplinary hearing is pending the outcome of the grievance hearing, said Collins. She acknowledged that making someone strip off their underwear could be seen as a sexual offence.
“We are definitely not condoning anything that happened here. It is wrong, it is something we are dealing with. I won’t suspend one of my staff members if I didn’t think it was necessary,” she said.
On 8 September, security guards denied New Frame access to the premises. “You can write your story from outside,” said Alex, a security guard who declined to give his surname. Minutes earlier, six provincial EFF leaders had entered the shop to demand that Natasha de Freitas be dismissed.
EFF prepared to ‘mobilise’
EFF deputy regional secretary Siyasanga Gidana said she had been told the disciplinary hearing would take place on Friday 11 September. “We told them we want immediate trauma counselling for those workers and compensation. We expect the outcome of Friday’s disciplinary hearing to be dismissal. If the lady is not fired, we will mobilise,” said Gidana.
EFF provincial organiser Khanya Ngqisha said it was unacceptable for Collins to say she did not condone what had happened. “It happened in the workplace, under their watch. We want serious compensation to be paid to those workers,” he said.
A fourth woman said, “I was so embarrassed. I don’t know how they are asking us to do that. To pull off our panties? That was so wrong. Even those who said they don’t have a period were told by Natasha that she had to check us. Nothing like this has ever happened before there. I want the boss to bring all of us together and apologise.
“There are a lot of things happening there. There is very much racism at JA Floral. They keep telling us blacks we must be grateful for the jobs. They are not treating us equally, they are treating us badly. I don’t even know what they think of us, I really don’t know. The way they treat white people there is not the same as they treat us coloured and black people. They are treating us bad,” she added.
Support for women’s rights
Eastern Cape children’s rights and victim empowerment organisation the Khula Community Development Project said women are often “made to submit to abuse in order to get employment”.
Project director Petros Majola said another separate protest took place 200km away in Peddie on the same day, after a female Expanded Public Works Programme worker was allegedly told she would have to have sex with a ward councillor if she wanted her contract to be extended.
“We demand the immediate removal of a ward councillor who demanded sex. It is alleged that the councillor went on by telling this girl, if she doesn’t give him what he is asking for, her family will not get his signature to apply for free electricity, and they did not get it because she refused to sleep with the councillor. The women of Ngqushwa municipality are now demanding the removal of this honourable councillor and anyone who was aware of this case but failed to act, and that this lady be given the job without going into a bedroom with the honourable member of the council,” said Majola in a text message.
Social justice collective the C19 People’s Coalition in the Eastern Cape has rallied around the retail employees and government workers.
“This kind of behaviour has to come to an end. We will be standing with the women staff members of JA Floral in PE and with the young woman from Ngqushwa municipality,” said C19 People’s Coalition provincial convenor Nicole Collier-Naidoo.
Correction, 11 September 2020: This article has been amended to reflect that the protest in Peddie had no connection to the EFF, which protested in Port Elizabeth.

domain: news


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The Buckeyes collected 449 yards of total offense in Saturday's entertaining 45-31 win at Minnesota. And, with the exception of quarterback Troy Smith, it could be said that all of OSU's stars on offense found the end zone against the Gophers. Smith, of course, was the pilot as he threw for 233 yards and three touchdowns.
The overall analysis shows that OSU has had 386 yards or better in all four of its Big Ten wins. OSU fans may finally have their one wish – an offense that can support the team's usually stellar defense and special teams.
"I think we've got a little bit better whole package," said OSU coach Jim Tressel. "We have some more experience. Quite honestly, I don't know if the last two defense we've played were as good as Texas or Penn State. But I think we're better than we were then."
Members of the offense say this midseason renaissance is due, in part, to cutting out the costly turnovers and penalties. OSU had to fight like crazy to get past Michigan State 35-24 on Oct. 15 after committing four turnovers. Just a week ago, OSU pulled away late and won 41-10 at Indiana after a pair of turnovers and eight costly penalties kept the Hoosiers in the game well into the second half.
But the mistakes – at least on offense – were kept to a minimum at Minnesota. The Buckeyes were turnover free for the first time all year and OSU's four penalties (for 35 yards) were not too much of a hindrance.
"I thought after Michigan State we were coming along," said wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez, who had four catches for 63 yards with a 27-yard touchdown. "Then we did it again against Indiana. Today, you saw another great performance out there. You see what happens when you don't turn the ball over. You score 45 points.
"We are finally starting to get to where we should have been at the beginning of the year. For whatever reason, it took our offense some time to get it going. But we finally have got it going now."
Sure enough, OSU ended up with back-to-back 40-point games for the first time since the beginning of the 2002 national championship season, when the Buckeyes had 45 points against Texas Tech and 51 against Kent State. That's even more amazing when you consider that the Indiana game snapped a string of 28 games since OSU last tallied 40 points, and that game was the 44-38 triple overtime thriller against N.C. State in early 2003.
Gonzalez termed the win a "weird game," and it was. Each side made a handful of dazzling big plays in what looked a lot like a track meet at various points.
"You talk about goals and holding teams under certain levels and things like that," Gonzalez said. "This was one of those games where you throw all of that out. You just go out and score and hope that at the end of the game it's more than the other team."
Flanker Ted Ginn Jr. came up huge once again. One week after having a 98-yard kick return for a touchdown negated by a penalty, Ginn was credited with his first career kickoff return touchdown on a 100-yard return. Plus, he caught three passes for 53 yards on offense and, for good measure, added a key 18-yard punt return late that helped lead to an OSU score that put the game away.
"I just think that we are clicking well right now," Ginn said. "The line is picking up blitzes. The receivers are catching the ball, Troy is delivering the ball and we're all doing what we're supposed to do. I think we're doing fine."
The Ring Leader
Smith was as cool as the other side of the pillow at Minnesota – even as the Gophers took turns teeing off on him. OSU had to call a timeout in the first half to allow Smith time to get bandaged up after he suffered a gash under his chin.
Smith cited that injury and also said he did not feel well afterwards as he begged out of talking to reporters.
But Smith made the Gophers feel poorly as well with his game management. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 233 yards and the three scores without an interception. He also netted 25 yards on 11 carries.
This is the Smith – distributing the ball to his various targets and making good decisions overall – that Tressel and OSU fans have been waiting to see.
For the year, he has now completed 83 of 139 passes (59.7 percent) for 1,265 yards with 10 touchdowns and three interceptions. He has also amassed 378 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground.
"He's always confident," Gonzalez said. "He's always into the game. For whatever reason, the last few games he has been extremely good about that.
"Troy had a great game. His head hurts right now because he had some stitches. But he battled and he is one of the toughest kids I know."
Ginn also discussed the play of his close friend and former Cleveland Glenville teammate.
"First, you have to give all of the thanks to the line," Ginn said. "But then he was very patient and poised and being a quarterback. He was delivering the ball. I think he's becoming a great quarterback, which he always was. He's improving himself with every game."
Many Happy Returns
OSU's edge in the special teams was readily apparent once again. Ginn's kick return was the product of a fake to upback Gonzalez. OSU varied its kick return scheme by putting Ginn as the single deep man and having Holmes and Gonzalez in front of him. If teams want to kick away from Ginn and go short, OSU will still have a steady – if not spectacular – hand to still field the kick.
"No matter where they kick the ball on the field, no matter who gets it, we're going to make something happen with it," said Holmes, who had four catches for 94 yards with a pair of touchdowns on offense giving seven TD grabs for the year and 21 for his career.
Some have noted that Ginn is taking more direct routes on returns instead of moving laterally, as he had earlier this year.
"That's the game plan every week, to run north and south and not east and west," he said. "Sometimes you get caught up in things and you see wrong things and go east and west. You just have to run, hit holes and go."
After going four games without a touchdown, Ginn's return gave him scores in three straight games. He had a touchdown catch against Michigan State and a punt return score against Indiana. He now has four touchdowns on the year and 12 for his career. Amazingly, nine of those 12 TD plays have gone for 57 yards or longer.
"It gives me some juice," Ginn said of his latest return. "But I know next week they probably won't kick me the ball."
Kicker Josh Huston, who made a 31-yard field goal, was a perfect 8-for-8 on putting his kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks.
"I think he put it in the stands every time," said UM coach Glen Mason. "It's awfully tough to be successful when offensively you always have to go the long route."
Ending The Drought
OSU players were relieved to see tailback Antonio Pittman get into the end zone for the first two times this season.
Pittman ripped off a 67-yard TD run to give OSU the lead for good early in the second half after the teams had fought to a 17-17 halftime tie.
"When I was running down the field, I was thinking, ‘Good, I hope there are no flags. We need this kid to have a touchdown,' " Gonzalez said. "Pitt broke that really nicely and he showed how fast he really is. We all know that. Now everybody knows that as well."
OSU was without several of its key offensive players at Minnesota. Offensive tackle Kirk Barton missed his third straight game, providing a chance for heralded freshman Alex Boone to get his feet wet.
And some new injuries were revealed Saturday as starting tight end Ryan Hamby and backup tailback Brandon Schnittker did not make the trip. Tressel said that Hamby was week-to-week, while the Buckeyes hope to have Schnittker back for their bowl game.
Sophomore Marcel Frost, an imposing looking athlete, stepped into the void for Hamby at tight end and made his first career start.
"I feel more comfortable now because that was Minnesota and they're a good team," said Frost, who had one catch for 6 yards. "I feel I can go out there and play against the best now."
Frost's OSU career has been marked by injuries and off-the-field problems. But the clouds seem to be lifting.
"It feels great," he said. "It's been a long time coming. It's been a lot of hard work. I did a few things in the past, but I fought through them and just came out today and played hard."
It is too early to call Frost the heir apparent at tight end, especially since promising sophomore Rory Nicol is sitting out this year with an injury. But Frost said he will be working even harder now that he's had a taste of playing time.
"I got my mouth wet with this game," Frost said. "I don't want to have a dry mouth any more. I want to keep playing."
* One of Tressel's favorite sayings to his quarterbacks when the offense gets inside the 30-yard line is "don't mess up the three."
The obvious meaning is he doesn't expect the offense to take any negative plays that knock the Buckeyes out of field goal range.
But Tressel sort of ignored his own advice midway through the second quarter when the game was tied at 17-17. OSU faced fourth-and-1 at the Minnesota 24. Instead of opting for a 41-yard Huston field goal attempt, Tressel called Smith's number on the quarterback sneak.
But the Minnesota front seven won the battle up front and Smith was stopped for no gain.
Reporters remarked afterwards to Tressel that it was unlike him to take such a gamble when Huston has been nearly automatic inside 50 yards this year.
"I guess I don't know me well enough," he said. "I got excited because we were moving the ball. It turned out to be a poor call."
* Tressel raised some eyebrows with about four minutes left when he put redshirt freshman Todd Boeckman in the game in place of Smith. The coach bypassed backup Justin Zwick and gave Boeckman his first playing time since the season opener.
"That was just a case where we couldn't find Justin and I wanted to get Troy out," Tressel said. "He had been sliced up."

domain: sports


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If you’re a boater, you know about the pounding, slapping, exhausting ride that a monohull boat subjects you to. But, with a World Cat power catamaran, you get a smoother, more stable ride. That means no more physical abuse – for you or your family and friends. You can stay on the water longer, and go farther. You’ll come back with more energy, and fewer bruises. And, along with that comfort, you’ll have the confidence to head out in conditions that keep other boaters at shore. Don’t take our word for it, take a sea trial and experience the World Cat advantages for yourself.
World Cat Models
Catamaran vs. Monohull
Undoubtedly one of the most important features of any watercraft is how well it’s engineered for a comfortable ride for all passengers. Many boats are primarily designed around comfort for the captain. This usually means anyone at the front or sides of the boat takes most of the jostling. The catamaran style hull delivers three distinctive characteristics key to ride comfort, smoothness, load distribution, and stability.

domain: hobby


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At these free volleyball games your goal is to make more points that your opponent before the time runs out. Use your keyboard to be able to move your crab. Try to move under the ball to hit it and don’t be afraid when you lose a life because you can recover it back when you win a point. Only at these free volleyball games you can improve your skills at volleyball game.
Use your arrow keys to control your crab at these free volleyball games. Move forward on the beach and hit the ball to send it to your opponent field and put him in a difficult position to save that ball. You will start this game with 10 lives. Every time the ball hits your part of the playground field you will lose a life. If you want to recover that life all you have to do is to win a ball by sending the ball into your opponent field and when the ball comes back you will have to throw the ball into an uncolored volley ball.
Don’t forget that you can play these free volleyball games even in a multiplayer mode. This way you can challenge your friends to a volleyball game without getting outside your house. Practice some rounds before you challenge them in order to beat them much easier. Also don’t forget that at this game timing is everything.
At the end of each game you will have to write down your name and to subscribe your score if you think is higher enough for these amazing free volleyball games. Don’t be afraid if you won’t be able to do this at your first attempt. All you have to do is to practice some extra rounds and in a few days you will see that the game is much easier to be played.
The Crab Ball game is a good choice if you want to play some amazing volleyball games online. These free volleyball games can teach you how to play correctly this game and how to serve a ball. Enjoy playing these amazing games only on our site.

domain: game


text:
Real estate in San Diego has long been reflective of national trends, and the current seller's market that exists in the city is being reflected across the United States.
Though renting has nothing to do with the act of purchasing a home, the statistics surrounding leases and other aspects of monthly payments can provide insight into the current housing market.
Renting an apartment or housing unit might be an attractive prospect for a person with a limited budget.
More people are choosing to relocate back into urban areas.
When you are a homeowner struggling with mortgage or housing payments, it may sometimes feel like you have nowhere to turn.
Though the southern part of California is filled with great places to live, the number of homes for sale in San Diego has declined since 2009.
Southern California is a beautiful place.
Foreclosure is never a pleasant process to experience.
Over the past few years, the California housing market has struggled due to the tough times that the United States economy had been going through.
Homes for sale in San Diego have unexpectedly decreased this February, but this is not a cause for concern.


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What can be done for kennel cough?
Your veterinarian will include kennel cough with your annual c5 vaccination no registered boarding kennel will accept an animal without sighting this current certificate, hope this helps you.
Please click on this link as it's very thorough regarding kennel cough in young to senior dogs.
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
Would someone have a home remedy for kennel cough?
By Evelyn from Richmond, TX
I read on web someone used Robitussin DM and it helped. Not all vets recommend antibiotics since it can be caused by different things and is mostly self limiting. Warm unsalted chicken broth in small amounts might help. (03/05/2010)
I also would not treat kennel cough at home. It may not be kennel cough it may be flu. If you can just go to your regular vet and ask for an antibiotic for him usually they will just charge you for the antibiotic and not an office call etc. I have 9 dogs and am nursing a Boston Bull terrier pup that I got a 2 days old because its mama died.
Keep the sick pup separate and treat it fast. There are so many things that are similar to kennel cough that aren't. Please be careful and I would think about changing where I board my pets, they apparently have a problem. Good luck. (03/05/2010)
What can I do for kennel cough till I can get to a vet on Monday?
By Susan from Grand Prairie, TX
No vaccines. Vaccines often give the disease. Check vaclib.org for ingredients. Mercury damages brain as does antifreeze, aluminum, and squaline. Build immune systems to keep them well. K cough treatment: Robitussin cough syrup, ester C, garlic, aloe juice, colloidal silver water, willard water, CS and Willards nebulated or in steamer. Add CS and Willards to all dogs drinking water to help with K cough as well as keeping those not infected from getting this. Too much to explain on benefits. Google and believe. You will be amazed. (01/07/2010)
Be careful with the garlic, it generally isn't safe for dogs. Only recommended in tiny amounts if any at all. (01/17/2010)
Does anyone have a remedy for kennel cough? We can not afford to keep running to the vet. Our dog has had all his shots 3 weeks ago. After this date we took him to a kennel for a weekend, and now we have a problem. He sees to have picked up something from one of the the dogs there.
By the way he did have his shots last year as well. He has also been to the vet recently and may have been exposed to a dog that had not been inoculated.
Anyway, can someone give us a tip of some sort? Hopefully save us a vet bill. Thanks in advance for your support.
By poopsy from 0ntario, Canada
It is a little late for this now, but if you can still find some green black walnut hulls put them in your dog's water otherwise you can buy green, black walnut tincture online, just be sure it is green. Give your dog 10 drops twice a day, if he is pretty bad I would suggest taking him to the vet, otherwise google Wolf Creek Ranch they have a lot of great herbal animal remedies.
Have your dog vaccinated specifically for kennel cough. The vaccine for it is very inexpensive. Most Farm stores sell a lot of things for dogs like tapeworm medicine, kennel cough treatments, etc, that are cheaper than the vet, but usually not in the concentration that you would get from the vet. Hope this helps.
Does anyone know a way to get rid of kennel cough? My Boxer took off about two weeks ago and the Humane Society picked him up. They charged us an unreasonable amount to get him back. We understood that part, but now the 7 puppies and the female have what we found out was kennel cough.
We ended up taking the male to the vet to find out what was wrong with him, but this was before we found out every other dog we have now has it also.
We cannot afford the treatment for all the dogs, and don't know what to do. I really don't understand how the Human society cannot tell someone for the dog's sake that he has been around many other dogs that have this issue.
Our vet told us this was not the only dog that has come from that place with the same issue. Anyway I am not going to go on about that, I just need to know how to get rid of this horrible issue. The dogs look to be in pain with this horrible cough. Please help.
Amanda from Union
I work for an animal rescue and as posted below please take dog to vet to be treated. Yearly Bordatella shot prevents it especially if you take in foster dogs on a regular basis. (03/18/2009)
Also, normally vets have that credit card that you can apply for that is 90 days same as cash or charged a low interest rate percentage after that - ask your vet about it. (03/18/2009)
If your vet has confirmed one pet has it, he should be more than willing to supply you with meds for the others or mine is if it's something as simple as kennel cough. Have you asked for a quantity discount? (03/19/2009)
My adopted dog had it at 8 weeks old and our vet gave us a RX for a cough pill with hydrocodone, just like humans. I filled it at Walgreens under his first name and my last name. Do not bring the dog home without medication, older and other pets will catch it, too. (03/19/2009)
A teaspoonful of "runny" honey x 3 times per day, not only does it soothe, but it is antiseptic as well.
We found it worked better than anything else (including what the vet gave us) and over a short period of time, did no significant harm to the teeth. (03/20/2009)
I just brought a new dog home from the pound I believe he has kennel cough. He doesn't cough a whole lot but sure has a runny nose.

domain: pet