Patent ID: 8737684

Claim:
An airport surface surveillance system comprising: an image acquisition system for capturing frames of digital images of an area of the airport surface mapped to a predetermined coordinate system, and for executing a stabilization algorithm to provide corresponding frames of stabilized images, wherein the image acquisition system includes: a camera array including at least one camera for capturing the frames of digital images; and an acquisition array for executing the stabilization algorithm upon the frames of digital images to provide the corresponding frames of stabilized images; a target identification system executing a target identification algorithm for identifying pixels in the frames of stabilized images which correspond to a target, the target identification system calculating a position of the target on the airport surface based on the identified pixels, wherein the target identification system includes an object processor executing the target identification algorithm for identifying background pixels of the frames of digital images and moving pixels of the frames of digital images corresponding to the target, wherein the object processor determines the position of the moving pixels by projecting a virtual ray from a virtual sensor corresponding to known coordinates of the at least one camera through a central portion of the moving pixels, the intersection of the virtual ray with the airport surface being calculated as the position of the moving pixels in the predetermined coordinate system; and, a display system for receiving the position of the target and for generating a two-dimensional plan view of the airport surface with an icon representing the position of the target on a visual display.