Patent ID: 7737965

Claim:
A synthetic vision system comprising: a video imagery source configured to acquire and supply a real-time actual image; a synthetic vision database having graphic objects stored therein; a handheld unit; a sensor suite housed within the handheld unit, the sensor suite comprising position and attitude sensors for reporting position and attitude data, respectively; a display housed within the handheld unit and configured to render images of actual or digitally created scenes; and a computer housed within the handheld unit and in communication with the video imagery source, the synthetic vision database, the sensor suite, and the display, the computer configured to: (i) receive the position and attitude data from the sensor suite and compute a view frustum, (ii) selectively retrieve graphic objects from the synthetic vision database, (iii) command the display to render, in three dimensional perspective, an image of (a) the real-time actual image that lies wholly or partially within the view frustum and (b) graphic objects selectively retrieved from the synthetic vision database that lie wholly or partially within the view frustum, wherein the image is rendered on the display with an expanded field of view, the expanded field of view being wider than a user field of view when the user is holding the handheld unit and looking at the image on the display.