Abstract:
This invention relates to a method, system and computer program product that monitors usage for man carried weapon systems; specifically a device to monitor ammunition level and weapon discharges through real time data collection, analysis and real time visual feedback to the operator. An ammunition level detecting system mounted on a projectile weapon comprising: A level measurement unit (LMU) and a Reader and Visualization Unit (RVU) and a PC Dongle which configured to facilitate communication between the RVU and a personal computer (PC), enabling management of the RVU configuration and offloading of sensor obtained and system determined data values.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is a non-provisional application of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/175,743, filed May 5, 2009, entitled System and Method for the Remote Measurement of the Ammunition Level, Recording and Display of the Current Level, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of Invention 
     This invention relates to a method, system and computer program product that allows for the real-time measurement of the level of ammunition contained within a magazine seated in a weapon system and providing a visible readout to the weapon operator&#39;s peripheral vision. 
     2. Background of Related Art 
     A concern, which many law enforcement, armed forces, or security personnel may encounter during a firearm confrontation, is the inability to determine with certainty when the load of ammunition in a firearm is running low in order to reload timely. 
     At the lack of an adequate weapon discharge reporting system that would provide crucial life preserving information to the user, currently adopted procedures in place, if any, are purely intuitive, and are acquired by training relying mostly on the user&#39;s state of mind. At any point during a never desired but possible confrontational firing event, the inevitable strain imposed by such circumstances, makes it extremely difficult for the user to keep a mental record of their ammunition consumption. Opting to replace a spent magazine is therefore turned into a hit and miss activity; a still partially loaded magazine is sometimes wastefully dropped and replaced for a new one in the attempt of not being caught on empty. It is widely known and accepted that human beings under stressful situations react more consistently when conditioned to respond to a sensorial reference than to an adopted routine that implies analytical thought and comparison to memorized data. 
     Several prior art disclosures describe claims with similar intent to monitor either shots fired or ammunition available within the magazine. While shots fired may provide useful information for statistical purposes, it does not directly aid the operator of the firearm. Other described claims perform a count-down function from an indicated starting point and thus require constant recalibration based on the size of the magazine and the actual amount of ammunition loaded into the magazine (Clark, Iredale, Bodmin, Leitner-Wise, &amp; Andrew, 2007). A similar system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,486 (Brinkley, 1995). U.S. Pat. No. 7,509,766 (Vasquez, 2004) indicates a simple LED read out but is still reliant on a preset starting level. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,138 (Crain, 1989) describes a system based on position switches within a magazine and the detection of the mechanical action of the slide. The described system specifies components integrated specifically suitable for a handgun type firearm; with the magazine fully enclosed by the weapon. 
     Ammunition level indicating magazines that rely on mechanical systems have been claimed, but these occur outside of the operators view while operating the weapon. Translucent magazines allow for a (limited) visual inspection of the magazine without disengaging the magazine from the weapon (Musgrave, Daniel, &amp; Cabin J., 1978). 
     Round expulsion counting by means of interference in an electromagnetic field was suggested by in U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,260 (Acarreta &amp; Delgado, 2002). A system purely based on recoil was described in claim U.S. Pat. No. 7,356,956 (Schinazi, G., &amp; de Rosset, 2005). 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,360 (Herold &amp; Herold, 1998) claims a self contained electronic counting system within a magazine, operating independently from a weapon system. This system positions the read out outside of the operators view and does not offer any storage or data extraction means. U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,850 (Villani, 2000) offers a similar system that is magazine based and relies on a combination of mechanical and electronic components 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,961 (Johnson &amp; Weidner, 1977) describes a system based around the depressing of a sensor integrated into the firing system, either manually engaged by a trigger pull, or located elsewhere in the fire system like the buffer tube. The described system provides an unspecified method of system state indicator and does not specify any means of storage, data transfer or indication of current ammunition level within the system. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The presented invention is related to a system, method and computer program product that provides a real-time, accurate count of ammunition contained within the magazine contained within the weapon system, as well as provides an accurate and real-time count of discharges by the weapon system that the invention is attached to. Secondary functionality may be found in data logging for reconstruction of incidents involving the weapon being discharged, institutional logistics involving the number of discharges of the weapon and associated maintenance of the weapon, advanced battle space awareness and any and all other functions not yet determined but associated either directly or indirectly with the operating of a weapon system equipped with the system as described in the claim. 
     The system consists of a Level Measurement Unit (LMU), a Reader and Visualization Unit (RVU) and a USB PC Dongle. 
     A combination of sensor detectable material, contained within the magazine exterior shell, follower (LMU) and in cooperation with an array of detectable inputs within the measurement read-out unit (RVU) level changes are determined within the magazine and interpreted as either the manual ejection of a round, or the ejection of a round through the process of firing the weapon system. The system is designed to predominantly function within an environment with an ambient operating temperature between −40° C. and +85° C.; more extreme conditions may be possible to be serviced with specific configurations of the system described in the claim. The system is designed to be moisture resistant and possibly submersible under certain configurations of the system described in the claim. 
     Within the magazine, the target position sensing solution (LMU) may be inductive, where inductors move along Gray coded ferromagnetic material. The LMU may be mounted inside the “follower” of the receptacle/magazine. 
     The RVU consists of small size printed circuit board(s) (PCB) with amongst it various electronics components and sensors a power source and low power consumption display. The RVU electronics will be located inside a housing (polymer or other suitable material), providing protection from environmental elements and providing a means of attachment to a standard MIL-STD-1913 Picatinny rail or other attachment means as specific to the intended host weapon system. 
     The system operates at low voltage, conserving energy for a long duration operational time. 
     Appropriate signal protection/encryption will secure communication between LMU to RVU and RVU to Computer Interface. 
     Multi LMU management provides a means to appropriately handle multiple LMU&#39;s within reach of a wireless RVU configuration. 
     Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings. 
     It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ATTACHED FIGURES 
       The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. 
       In the drawings: 
         FIG. 1  shows one exemplary ammunition level detecting system in accordance with one embodiment. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a level measurement unit (LMU). 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a Reader and Visualization Unit (RVU). 
         FIG. 4  is a flowchart of method for detecting and registering an ammunition fill level by the ammunition level detecting system. 
         FIG. 5  is an example of the computing system where the present invention may be implemented. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. 
     The LMU system consists of an exterior shell augmented with sensors or detectable material that allows the LMU to determine its location within the exterior shell. Other means of determining the elevation of the LMU within the exterior shell may also be employed, which may alter the composition of parts associated with the exterior shell. 
     Within the exterior shell, the LMU is located atop a tension device (as indicated by the spring  106  in  FIG. 1 ) that pushes the LMU and follower towards the top of the magazine with sufficient force to perform the ammunition loading function as designed for the specific weapon system. The tension device may or may not play part in the location determination of the LMU within the exterior shell. 
     The LMU may contain the circuitry to both determine the location of the LMU within the exterior shell, as well as the interface means to communicate with the RVU. Similar circuitry could also be affixed to exterior shell depending on the sensor selection and means of level determination within the magazine.  FIG. 1  indicates a possible configuration with a power source and sensors responding to ferromagnetic material located on top of a spring and below the follower. 
     A follower, standard to the design of the ammunition for the specific weapon system, completes the top side of the LMU and allows for the ammunition to be fed into the weapon system as designed by the manufacturer. 
       FIG. 1  shows one exemplary  1  ammunition level detecting system  100  in accordance with one embodiment. Each magazine contained within the weapon system is filled with ammunition, the level of which is monitored and measured upon sensory input (automatic or manually initiated) using an ammunition level detecting system  100 . Each weapon is equipped with a magazine  101  containing a Level Measurement Unit (“LMU”)  104  that communicates with a Reader and Visualization Unit (“RVU”)  102 , (preferably) via a wireless communication. When the RVU  102  detects a magazine level below a threshold value or completely empty, an alert status is generated and displayed on the RVU display. Data collected by the RVU can be transmitted to a USB PC Dongle  103 . Accelerometer input, or the lack there off, at the time of an ammunition level recording, may be interpreted as the manual ejection of a round, assuming the LMU identification number is identical to the previous reading, indicating a continuous statistic for the same magazine. 
     The magazine  101 , as indicated in  FIG. 1 , further includes a LMU with follower  104 , grey encoded ferromagnetic strip(s)  105 , which are mounted in channels on the inside of the magazine shell  101  in order to provide both environmental protection and reduce the distance between the material and the LMU  104  based sensors. Ferromagnetic strips are encoded to accommodate a step resolution consistent with the indicated ammunition capacity of the magazine  101 . Ferromagnetic grey encoding identified resolution point combined with the RVU configured caliber for the ammunition stack allows for the mathematical determination of the level of the ammunition stack. The LMU  104  is positioned on top of a spring  106  and a base plate  108 . The spring moves the follower/LMU  104  up along the side of the ferromagnetic strip(s)  105  as the ammunition stack is reduced in the magazine. 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of the LMU  104 . Includes a plurality of Sensing Inductors  218 - 224 , a Start-up receiver  206 , a wireless communication interface (not shown), an Antenna Block  204  and a Power Unit (battery)  212 , an ISM Multichannel Transceiver  216  and a Signal Conditioner  214 . The wireless Interface may use either one of the standard type Unlicensed International Frequency transceiver like Bluetooth, Zigbee™, etc or proprietary (military) protocols. 
     Furthermore, in the LMU the Inductive sensors  218 - 224  are adopted to read the Gray Encoded Ferromagnetic material  105  in the magazine exterior shell  101  to determine the level of fill in the magazine. Transceiver and CPU communicate with the RVU to transfer data and receive operation commands like wake-up and deep-sleep commands. 
     In LMU  104 , a 3.6 volt, 1.6 Ah power source best suited to the system configuration and client mission requirements is located. This may either be a disposable power source or a power source with wireless charging capability. 
     A magazine shell is a Polymer shell to house Follower/LMU  104  and hold ammunition for the indicated caliber and volume. Further, the gray encoded ferromagnetic strip(s)  105  are integrated into the polymer shell in order to allow the Follower/LMU  104  to identify its location within the magazine shell  101 . 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram of the Reader and Visualization Unit (RVU)  102 . The RVU  102  includes an (OLED) Display  302 , a sensor array  308 , containing an accelerometer and other environmental inputs, a wireless communication interface (not shown), an Antenna Block  304  and a Power Unit (battery)  314 , an ISM Multichannel Transceiver  312 , a Driving Stage  316 , a Storage means  306  and a LF Transmit Antenna Coil  320 , a processor (CPU) (not illustrated). The WLAN Interface uses one of the standard type Unlicensed International Frequency transceiver like Bluetooth, Zigbee™ etc or a proprietary (military) protocol. 
     The Sensor Array  308  illustratively shown in  FIG. 3  contains a (piezo-electric) accelerometer, an electronic Compass, a GPS, a Multi-Axis MEMS sensor, and a Sensor control parameters of surroundings. Sensor control parameters of surroundings may include one or more of: a Temperature Sensor, a Barometric Pressure Sensor, a Humidity Sensor, Range Finder, etc. The Antenna block  304  includes a GPS antenna, a low power LAN antenna and any additional antenna type as required by the RVU configuration. 
     Initially the RVU and the LMU are in deep sleep mode. After manually, or automatically via accelerometer input, turning on the RVU, the RVU boots up and sends in intervals a startup pattern to the LMU. After each sending of a startup pattern it goes for a short interval into a receive-mode to receive LMU identification information and the fill level from the LMU via a data transfer method. If the LMU receives a startup pattern, it starts up, determines the LMU position along the sensor detectable material and transmits the position to the RVU. Upon successful completion of the data transfer it the LMU goes back to deep sleep mode upon the configured interval of inactivity from the RVU. Upon successful completion of the data transfer it the RVU goes back to deep sleep mode upon the configured interval of inactivity from either user- or sensor input or a CPU command. When the RVU receives a position value, it stores the information with a date/time stamp (as well as any other configured/available data) in storage  306  and updates the display value on display  302 . Upon completion of this process the RVU goes to sleep mode waiting for a timer interrupt, or any other input method restarting the fill level request process, to request new fill level/position value. The RVU communicates with the LMU via encrypted communication with an operational range of 2 feet. 
     RVU uses a removable (disposable) 3.6 volt, 1.6 Ah power source consisting of 2 CR123A or equivalent batteries. 
     The RVU may utilize a piezo-electric accelerometer in order to conserve power consumption from the power source. Piezo-electric property needs to be sufficient to trigger wake-up procedures. Also, the RVU may utilize piezo-electric buttons for the human interface in order to minimize power consumption from the battery and in order to provide enough current to bring the system from deep sleep mode. If not utilizing a piezo-electric interface, a very low power consumption option can be utilized. 
     The GPS unit compliant with NAVSTAR and its associated anti-tamper and security architecture. 
     Further, the power source is located at the bottom of the system in order to provide the (GPS) antenna(s) a clear view of the sky. 
     The (OLED) Display  302  is mounted at 15 degree angle towards the mounting rail/operator providing optimal view to the operator&#39;s peripheral vision and minimizing external light signature. 
     Mounting solution that allows the RVU to be mounted on a MIL-STD 1913A Picatinny rail or other weapon system standard accessory rail. 
     Within the RVU the (Piezo-electric or low power consuming) accelerometer is used to identify a discharge event, i.e. to measure the g-force generated by the weapon discharge or manual ejection of a round. 
     External to the RVU housing, a Human interface to manipulate RVU settings and trigger manual level measurement cycle. 
     Within the RVU, an electronic compass is used to determine the cardinal direction of the host weapon system. 
     Within the RVU, a Multi-axis MEMS sensor is used to determine the elevation of the host weapon system. 
     Within the RVU, a multi-antenna array used to facilitate RVU to LMU, RVU to PC Dongle and GPS communication. 
     Within the RVU, additional environmental sensory inputs (i.e. temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, etc) may be added to the RVU to provide additional data recordings in specific configurations. 
     PC Dongle: Transceiver and CPU to facilitate RVU to PC to RVU communication and interface with the PC based RVU management software. 
     The USB PC Dongle  103  illustrated in  FIG. 1 , provides USB2 or USB3 connectivity from the dongle to a PC computer. Also, the Dongle  103  provides RVU encrypted communication with an operational range of up to 10 feet, works with a software interface to allow recorded data to be offloaded from the RVU. Including, but not limited to: Weapon serial number, Longitude at time of data collection, Latitude at time of data collection, Date at time of data collection, Time of data collection, Cardinal direction of the host weapon system at time of data collection, System incline at time of data collection, Discharge indication at time of data collection, LMU serial number at time of data collection and RVU serial number. Also, the Dongle  103  provides a software interface to allow RVU configuration settings to be entered/updated. Including, but not limited to: Weapon serial number, Weapon caliber, User identification, Date, Time, and Time zone. 
     System Process Flow 
       FIG. 4  is a flowchart of method for detecting and registering an ammunition fill level by the ammunition level detecting system. The recoil action of the host weapon triggers the accelerometer in the Step  402  and once a reading above a preconfigured level is determined (to accommodate for various calibers/loads and suppressed and unsuppressed fire), the sensor measurement cycle is started. The RVU system polls the various input sensors and collects their readings in parallel in the Step  404 . 
     In parallel, in Step  406  RVU determines the last known LMU position and ID of the LMU for later comparison. 
     In Step  408  GPS reading is taken and the data prepared for analyzing/storage. In Step  410  Electronic compass reading is taken and the data prepared for analyzing/storage. In Step  412  multi-axis MEMS sensor reading is taken and the data prepared for analyzing/storage. In Step  414  Accelerometer data is prepared for analyzing/storage. 
     In Step  416  Startup pattern is prepared to be sent to LMU. In Step  418  RVU determines if one or more LMU&#39;s are within range. 
     If no LMU&#39;s are determined to be within range (or in possession of a working power source) an alternate process is selected to continue the current processing cycle as illustrated in Step  420 . 
     In Step  422  RVU determines if two or more LMU&#39;s are detected (i.e, a LMU collision). If only a single LMU is detected, the startup pattern  416  is sent to the LMU and the LMU determines its current position along the ferromagnetic grey encoded material as illustrated in Step  424 . If two or more LMU&#39;s are detected, the RVU enters LMU collision mode and allows for the selection of the user desired LMU as shown in Step  426 . 
     In Step  428  the LMU measurement data is returned to the LMU and prepared for analyzing/storage. 
     In Step  430  the RVU analyzes the sensory input and prepares it for processing and storage. In Step  432  RVU determines if the LMU ID from the LMU providing the current reading is identical to the LMU ID of the last known reading. 
     In Step  434  RVU determines if the accelerometer provided a reading above the preset threshold level and determines the next step in the process based upon the accelerometer reading. 
     In Step  436  RVU determines if the current LMU reading is identical to the last known reading. 
     In Step  438  RVU determines the next course of action based upon the determination as made in Step  436 . Process ends if the reading is identical. In Step  440  RVU calculates the current ammunition stack based upon prepared LMU data and system configuration information  442 . 
     In Step  442  RVU provides system configuration information (like caliber as used in the host weapon) to the ammunition stack calculation process  440 . In Step  444  all prepared sensory data and the results of the ammunition stack calculation are stored in the RVU. 
     In Step  446  the results of the ammunition stack calculation are displayed on the (OLED) Display  302  of the RVU  102 . 
     In Step  448  the continuation from the process determination that no LMU is present from the Step  420 . In this step RVU also analyzes the provided sensory data and prepares it for storage and display (excluding any LMU readings. 
     In Step  450  RVU stores the prepared sensory data in the RVU&#39;s data storage device. 
     In step  452  RVU displays a warning on the RVU display that no LMU was detected during the sensory input cycle. 
     Alternatively to accelerometer input, in Step  454  the human interface records an action and the sensor measurement cycle is started. 
     With reference to  FIG. 5 , an exemplary system for implementing the invention includes a general purpose computing device in the form of a personal computer or server  20  or the like, including a processing unit  21 , a system memory  22 , and a system bus  23  that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit  21 . The system bus  23  may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. The system memory includes read-only memory (ROM)  24  and random access memory (RAM)  25 . A basic input/output system  26  (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the personal computer  20 , such as during start-up, is stored in ROM  24 . The personal computer  20  may further include a hard disk drive  27  for reading from and writing to a hard disk, not shown, a magnetic disk drive  28  for reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk  29 , and an optical disk drive  30  for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk  31  such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media. The hard disk drive  27 , magnetic disk drive  28 , and optical disk drive  30  are connected to the system bus  23  by a hard disk drive interface  32 , a magnetic disk drive interface  33 , and an optical drive interface  34 , respectively. The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide non-volatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the personal computer  20 . Although the exemplary environment described herein employs a hard disk, a removable magnetic disk  29  and a removable optical disk  31 , it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of computer readable media that can store data that is accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks, Bernoulli cartridges, random access memories (RAMs), read-only memories (ROMs) and the like may also be used in the exemplary operating environment. 
     A number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk, magnetic disk  29 , optical disk  31 , ROM  24  or RAM  25 , including an operating system  35  (preferably Windows™ XP or higher). The computer  20  includes a file system  36  associated with or included within the operating system  35 , such as the Windows NT™ File System (NTFS), one or more application programs  37 , other program modules  38  and program data  39 . A user may enter commands and information into the personal computer  20  through input devices such as a keyboard  40  and pointing device  42 . Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit  21  through a serial port interface  46  that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, game port or universal serial bus (USB). A monitor  47  or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus  23  via an interface, such as a video adapter  48 . In addition to the monitor  47 , personal computers typically include other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers. 
     The personal computer  20  may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers  49 . The remote computer (or computers)  49  may be another personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the personal computer  20 , although only a memory storage device  50  has been illustrated. The logical connections include a local area network (LAN)  51  and a wide area network (WAN)  52 . Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, Intranets and the Internet. 
     When used in a LAN networking environment, the personal computer  20  is connected to the local network  51  through a network interface or adapter  53 . When used in a WAN networking environment, the personal computer  20  typically includes a modem  54  or other means for establishing communications over the wide area network  52 , such as the Internet. The modem  54 , which may be internal or external, is connected to the system bus  23  via the serial port interface  46 . In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the personal computer  20 , or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used. 
     Having thus described a preferred embodiment, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that certain advantages of the described method and apparatus have been achieved. It should also be appreciated that various modifications, adaptations, and alternative embodiments thereof may be made within the scope and spirit of the present invention. The invention is further defined by the following claims.