A computer assisted automatic grenade throw training system with simple digital cameras

Abstract

Grenade throwing is a routine military training and testing subject among many armies of the world. However, the conventional manual measurement mode has many defects: poor efficiency, large training field needing and important data losing. So how to utilize simple device and simple method framework to replace the actual test procedure becomes an interesting issue. In this paper, we present a real-time computer assisted grenade throwing training system by simple digital camera and low-cost computational methods. In this system, firstly, the marked grenade is extracted from the camera video frames; Secondly, a linked list is generated to store the grenade pixel coordinate; Thirdly, after a transformation from image space to real space, the instantaneous velocity of throwing (initial speed) can be computed; Lastly, a virtual 3D scene is established to demonstrate the training activity. By using this system, an overall throwing result data (distance, height, throwing angle, throwing speed and ballistic trajectory) can be obtained. The most significant novelty of our application is achieving a real-time computer assisted grenade throwing training system by simple and low-cost computational methods. In addition, we proposed a specialized self-adapted color enhancement method in the system. This computation strategy may provide some enlightenments for other research work. From the test data of several hurlers, it can be seen that the effectiveness and the accuracy of this training system are favorable. This system may provide technical support for the modern military throwing training and may change the traditional manual measuring mode for grenade throwing.