Method for determining position of a laser point applied in a firearm training simulation system using infrared lasers

A method to detect, identify and determine the position of laser points shot onto a screen from reconfigurable laser emitters in a system that consists of a camera, a projector and a computing device connected to the camera and the projector, wherein the method is performed by the computing device, comprising the step of:

• performing a screen mapping step including:
• powering on the system;
• controlling the camera to operate with a visible light filter by the computing device;
• generating a plurality of calibration images and projecting the calibration images onto the screen by the computing device;
• capturing the projected calibration images by the camera;
• programmatically processing the captured images to determine boundaries of the projected images including corners, edges, and a bounded area by the computing device;
• generating a mapping points within the bounded area of the projected image in the captured image to corresponding points in the calibration images;
• and storing the mapping and boundary parameters;
• performing a laser shot detection step, wherein the laser shot detection step is executable only after successful completion of the screen mapping step, including:
• configuring laser emitters to project unique emission patterns based on spatiotemporal patterns characteristic of firearm types and firing modes;
• controlling the camera to operate with a visible light filter by the computing device;
• programmatically reading an identification table comprising aforementioned unique pattern configurations and identification numbers for a plurality of laser emitters by the computing device;
• executing an object detection loop including:
• capturing, by the camera, real-time image frames and continuously streaming the frames to the computing device, and
• programmatically processing, by the computer device, each captured frame to detect clusters of bright pixels corresponding to potential laser objects and filtering out noise artifacts based on object size,
• while, by the computing device in parallel, executing a laser shot detection sequence including:
• programmatically calculating, for each detected laser object, a center point using a center-of-mass pixel intensity equation;
• programmatically discarding false laser objects based on shape, size, and position relative to the bounded area determined in the screen mapping step;
• programmatically storing potential laser objects in a table indexed by frame, shot sequence;
• programmatically detecting laser shots by identifying consecutive series of laser objects in close proximity in the table that correspond to valid shot durations defined in the identification table;
• programmatically identifying simulated shots by correlating multiple detected laser shots with aforementioned spatiotemporal patterns characteristic of firearm types and firing modes;
• and transforming the position of the first detected laser shot in a simulated shot from camera coordinates into corresponding coordinates on the original image using the mapping generated in the screen mapping step, and transmitting the final transformed position to a simulation application to generate a virtual shot in a three-dimensional environment.