Magnetic drum storage for the track before detect system

Claim 2

A track detection system comprising; receiving means for receiving reflected radio frequency signals from an object in a given medium; said receiving means for receiving said signals at a predetermined scan rate; storage means operatively coupled to said receiving means for storing information corresponding to reflected radio frequency signals from an object in a given medium; referencing means included in said storage means for referencing received reflected radio frequency signals with respect to the azimuth from which the reflected information is received during a scan of said receiving means; said storage means being adapted for storing a multitude of scans; ordering means operatively coupled to said storage means for accepting information from said storage means and sorting said information according to range and sector where range is broken up into a discrete number of increments referred to as range bins and where range is the distance from the receiving means to an object in a medium and sector is the azimuth from which a signal is received at a given time; other storage means operatively connected to said ordering means for storing information corresponding to the number of hits per range bin where hits are defined as the times when an object is illuminated by radio frequency energy; said number of hits per range bin having been stored in said first mentioned storage means as range information; and track detector means operatively connected to said other storage means for making a decision as to the absence or presence of a track in the medium.

Claim 3

A track detection system comprising; means for receiving radio frequency information from objects in a medium; buffer means operatively connected to said receiving means for serially storing received radio information corresponding to increments of range for a given azimuthal sector; storage means operatively coupled to said buffer means for storing information therein corresponding to radio information received with respect to range information and sector information;

Claim 4

A track detection system comprising; means for receiving radio frequency information from objects in a medium; buffer means operatively connected to said receiving means for serially storing received radio information corresponding to increments of range for a given azimuthal sector; storage means operatively coupled to said buffer means for storing information therein corresponding to radio information received with respect to range information and sector information;

Claim 5

said storage means having the capacity to store the information corresponding to a multiplicity of scans of the receiving system; ordering means operatively receiving the contents of said storage means for ordering the output from said storage means and arranging said outputs according to received information correlated with a respective range increment and sector; correlation means including other storage means operatively connected to said ordering means for storing radio information from said storage means indexed with respect to an individual range increment and sector; said correlation means being operative to perform a cross correlation with a class of possible tracks to determine the probability of a track in said medium; and track detector means operatively coupled to the outputs of said other storage means for making a decision as to the absence or presence of a track in the medium.

Claim 6

said storage means having the capacity to store the information corresponding to a multiplicity of scans of the receiving system; ordering means operatively receiving the contents of said storage means for ordering the output from said storage means and arranging said outputs according to received information correlated with a respective range increment and sector; correlation means including other storage means operatively connected to said ordering means for storing radio information from said storage means indexed with respect to an individual range increment and sector; said correlation means being operative to perform a cross correlation with a class of possible tracks to determine the probability of a track in said medium; and track detector means operatively coupled to the outputs of said other storage means for making a decision as to the absence or presence of a track in the medium.

Claim 7

A track detection system comprising; receiving means for receiving radio frequency information from objects in a medium; said receiving means being operative to correlate said received information with respect to a sector and a particular scan and also being operative to separate said received information according to discreet range intervals corresponding to range bins; buffer means operatively connected to the output of said receiving means for receiving and retaining video information therein so that said video information retains sector scan and range identification; storage means operatively connected to the output of said buffer means for receiving information from said buffer means and storing said information; said storage means having the ability to store information for a number of scans of said receiving means and retaining said information correlated with respect to range, sector and scan; control means operatively connected to said storage means and said buffer means for sequentially shifting information from said buffer means to said storage means; ordering means operatively receiving the contents of said storage means for sorting the information from said storage means with respect to time; correlation means including other storage means operatively coupled to the output of said ordering means for receiving information from said ordering means and storing information therein corresponding to range, sector and scan; said other storage means retaining an amount of information corresponding to s where s is the average number of pulses transmitted by a radio frequency system in an azimuth sector; said correlation means being operative to perform a cross correlation with a class of probable tracks to determine the probability of a track in a medium; and track detector means operatively coupled to the output of said other storage means for making a decision as to the presence or absence of a track in the medium.

Claim 8

A track detection system comprising; receiving means for receiving radio frequency information from objects in a medium; said receiving means being operative to correlate said received information with respect to a sector and a particular scan and also being operative to separate said received information according to discreet range intervals corresponding to range bins; buffer means operatively connected to the output of said receiving means for receiving and retaining video information therein so that said video information retains sector scan and range identification; storage means operatively connected to the output of said buffer means for receiving information from said buffer means and storing said information; said storage means having the ability to store information for a number of scans of said receiving means and retaining said information correlated with respect to range, sector and scan; control means operatively connected to said storage means and said buffer means for sequentially shifting information from said buffer means to said storage means; ordering means operatively receiving the contents of said storage means for sorting the information from said storage means with respect to time; correlation means including other storage means operatively coupled to the output of said ordering means for receiving information from said ordering means and storing information therein corresponding to range, sector and scan; said other storage means retaining an amount of information corresponding to s where s is the average number of pulses transmitted by a radio frequency system in an azimuth sector; said correlation means being operative to perform a cross correlation with a class of probable tracks to determine the probability of a track in a medium; and track detector means operatively coupled to the output of said other storage means for making a decision as to the presence or absence of a track in the medium.

Claim 9

A track detection system as set forth in claim 3 wherein; said storage means comprises a magnetic drum.

Claim 10

A track detection system as set forth in claim 3 wherein; said other storage means comprises at least one serial shift register having a number of stages corresponding to the number of range bins for a given sector; and wherein outputs are taken from various of the stages corresponding to the range bins in the shift register for performing the cross correlation against a class of possible tracks.

Claim 11

A track detection system as set forth in claim 3 wherein; said other storage means comprises y serial shift registers wherein y is the number of scans for which information is to be processed; each register having a number of stages corresponding to b·t where b is the number of range bins of interest and t is the number of bits necessary to represent the data from a single range bin; and said cross correlation is accomplished by making connections to individual stages of said registers corresponding to range bins in a predetermined theoretical track sequence.