Patent Document ID: 9070285
Application ID: 13558304
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. In an aircraft including a computerized aircraft navigation system, a method of detecting and displaying cloud formations comprising the steps of: acquiring with a camera, consecutively and in real time, a plurality of images within a field of view of the camera; providing said plurality of images to a central processing unit that is integrated with said camera, said central processing unit running a software application which is operative for receiving said plurality of images, detecting a plurality of feature points of cloud formations in each of said plurality of images, tracking said plurality of feature points across said plurality of images to create a plurality of 2-dimensional feature tracks, estimating 3-dimensional positions of said feature points in said 2-dimensional feature tracks to obtain estimated 3-dimensional feature tracks, and generating macro representations of said cloud formations based on said 3-dimensional feature tracks, wherein said step of generating said macro representations includes clustering said 3-dimensional feature tracks into cloud clusters, and wherein said step of clustering includes determining within said images pixels belonging to cloud formations and pixels belonging to background, measuring a distance between selected pixels using a distance function in 3-dimensional space, adding a prohibitive distance to said measured distance if said pixels are on different cloud formations, and setting a predetermined distance threshold for clustering whereby pixels on different cloud formations are not clustered; and displaying said generated macro representations of said cloud formations on a visual display integrated with said central processing unit.