Patent ID: 6522289
Filing Date: 2003-02-18
Classification: G01S

Abstract:
A method for producing a persistence trail for at least one target having a current target position and one or more previous target positions, wherein the current target position is represented in a continuous manner in a radar image of a radar instrument, and the current target position is made visible by a number of pixels covering a contiguous area in the radar image, and wherein the previous target positions are represented by a thinning out of pixels in the radar image, the thinning out increasing with increasing age of the respective target position, the method comprising:(a) storing amplitudes of radar echoes received by the radar instrument in a radar video memory; (b) writing the content of the radar video memory as a 1-bit item of information to at least one trail memory; and, (c) erasing the trail memory by a method for thinning out pixels in a chronologically successive manner when the content of individual trail memory cells exceeds a first predetermined value, comprising: (i) writing the content of the trail memory to an image buffer memory, and subsequently (ii) writing the content of the radar video memory to the image buffer memory when the contents of individual memory cells of the radar video memory exceed a second predetermined value; wherein the radar video memory, trail memory, and image buffer memory all have memory cells which are oriented in x,y coordinates, and wherein the image buffer memory is represented in a continuous manner on the radar image as a pixel per memory cell.