Video demultiplexing interface for a missile tracking system

摘要

A video demultiplexing interface (70) is used in a missile tracking system (10) employing a missile (12) with a thermal beacon (24). A target designator (40) defines a boresight from a missile firing location, such as an aircraft, to a target. The closed-loop tracking system (10) employs a forward looking infrared (FLIR) sensor (52) to track the displacement of the thermal beacon (24) from the boresight and generates a correction signal related to such displacement. The video demultiplexing interface (70) transforms serial multiplexed video signals, which are output by the FLIR sensor (52) and contain a field with M rows and L columns of pixels, into a demultiplexed parallel video signal containing N selectable adjacent horizontal rows of pixels (where N is less than M). A video thermal tracker (58) selects the N adjacent horizontal rows of pixels and generates azimuth and elevation error signals which are transmitted to the missile (12). The trajectory of the missile (12) is continuously corrected to align the thermal beacon (24) with the boresight.