Simovni 2 Specifications

The context is the problem of the quality of UAP observation reports.

A written description is ambiguous. A picture is worth a thousand words. A 3D animation can fully describe the visual and spatio-temporal aspects of an observation.
By simulating physics (even very simplified) or ensuring at least some internal consistency in the trajectories, the simulation can help test/reject hypotheses.

Obtain better and more elaborate estimates of the observation parameters.

• The availability in 2021, on the consumer market of standalone (untethered) Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) for Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). These new HMDs do not even need to work in a fully controlled environment. They don't need “reference bases” or pattern targets to be placed around.
• The availability of free frameworks for the development of applications targeted on these devices. Namely : Unity 3d.
• all the reasons that motivated the invention of the SIMOVNI.

Some of the issues with SIMOVNI are solved, some appear. Many new things can be done that were impossible.

Solved with some HMDs

• unobstructed view solves the issue of the under estimation of angular sizes when looking through an opening (eyepiece of a refractor or binoculars for example)

The new or remaining issues with HMDs are developed below.

We expect better and more elaborate parameters estimations with such a tool than with the basic methods used by the investigators.

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) and remain pragmatic.

One of our goals in this development, is to over specify and explore the theoretical/practical potential of the technology, yet limit ourselves to the most simple developments and proceed progressively and evolve the software based on the field results.
We thus also define a minimum implementation.

Before doing anything, we need to be sure we can obtain something of interest (see limitations).

• Orientation of the UAP : 2 operating modes.
  • Absolute (*) ¹⁾
  • Billboard always facing the witness
    • Billboard turned : that is, an optional post re-orientation is applied to the billboard orientation
• Distance (*)
• Size : 2 operating modes
  • Size (*)
  • Angular size
• Color(s)
• Apparent Luminosity (*)
• Level of blurriness
• Position of the UAP : 2 operating modes.
  • Direction relative to the witness (*) (azimuth and angular height)
  • Position relative to the witness (cartesian coordinates, X,Y,Z)
• Shape & Surface state / Texture
• Evolution over time of all the estimates
  • Trajectory as well as all the other parameters : May be done using key points.

Extracted/Computed data

• Angular speed
• Angular size

Additional optional informations displayed ?

• @ observation time
  • Main Stars
  • Planets, Moon, Sun
  • Satellites
  • Planes
• Alt/Az grid

Additional setup parameter

• North Direction (*) to be measured/re-aligned on site in order to get absolute geo-aligned azimuth.

For each information that can be quantized as a number, it is informative to obtain min and max estimates by the witness, for a 100% confidence level as well as some lower confidence level like 50%. And the value for which the witness is the most confident.

In the session process, make the witness estimate by memory the characteristics of some known things for reference. Typically for example : the moon. Size and luminosity.

Can the HMDs simulate the expected characteristics ?

• Orientation of UAP
  • no problem
• Size | Angular size : star like to 160°
  • Star-Like : we are limited by the resolution. How star-like does a single lit pixel feels like ?
  • Big things : We are limited to the field of view of the displays. Can be as low as 35° or as high as 90°
• Distance
  • We deal with UAPs at distance of more than 6 meters. Beyond that distance there is no issue of accommodation conflict provided the HMD projets the virtual image at infinity.
• Color
  • The color gamut depends on the display technology. Ultra violet and deep red colors cannot be rendered well. But that is not a huge problem as far as the witness can tell the problem.
• Shape
  • OK. About any shape can be simulated
• Surface state / Texture
  • The display system is not limiting. Here the difficulty is not the display system, but our ability to know what the witness saw. The limitation is the ability of the witness to describe what he saw. The human eye may be able to discriminate some additional characteristic of the light (polarization) but we won't go that far.
• Apparent Luminosity: From the brightness of a star/satellite to a blinding electrical arc ?
  • That would be one of the most interesting parameters to measure accurately. . Question : how contrasted and luminous are these HMDs screens ? Luminosity of a pixel ? . How do they compare to a mag -1 star or the moon ? Because this parameter is not calibrated at all (not even by product) there is a need for a calibration file per product and we will have to do it. This is a unique need. It makes this project innovative.
• Level of blurriness
  • no problem
• Direction relative to the witness :Altitude, Azimuth
  • no problem.
• Evolution over time of all the estimates
  • The display frame rate are quite high (90hz+). High speed changes can be simulated. The HMD is not the limiting factor.

proposal

Phase 1 : Investigation. As for any investigation, the witness provides to the investigator a description of the UAP. If this makes sense, the witness should make a drawing (color pencils) of the UAP. And all details pertaining to a 3D simulation.

Phase 2 : 3D modeling, 3D shape animation, 3D trajectory, 3D scene preparation

Phase 3 : On site with witness and alike conditions if possible.

While the witness wears the HMD, the investigator remote controls some of what the witness sees. This may be done with a smart-phone or a computer.

The parameters should be tunable in real time by the investigator and/or the witness.

Unfortunately, we are not able to update in real time these; too complex

• Shape
• Surface state / Texture

By this, you should understand : one cannot change in real time these parameters beyond the dynamics described in phase 1 and modeled in phase 2

• Orientation of UAP :
  • In Mode 1 : absolute Yaw, Pitch, Roll.
  • In Mode 2 : billboard, always facing witness. No control.
• Direction relative to the witness : Altitude, Azimuth this is done by looking or pointing the HMD in the wanted direction.
• Color ? How ?

The investigator can control all the parameters.

• Orientation of UAP :
  • In Mode 1 : absolute Yaw, Pitch, Roll. (*)
  • In Mode 2 : billboard, always facing witness. No control. Yaw, Pitch are computed in real time. Roll can be controlled
• Direction relative to the witness : Altitude, Azimuth (*)
• Color ? How ?

and also

• North Direction (*)
• Selection of Orientation mode : 1 or 2.
• Level of blurriness
• Distance. Can be arbitrary if it is unknown. If arbitrary, distance should be set to a fixed value of more that 25m (for invisible stereo parallax), but not too far in order to remain closer than the back clipping plane of the rendering engine. (*)
• Size : 2 operating modes. What's best ? Depends on the case. The origin of the 3D model should rather be defined close to its “center of gravity”. The bounding box of the model at scale 1 is what is used for these computations. Since the size is a bit ill defined concept, the parameter that is controlled at low level is the scale of the 3D model.
  • Size. The size considered is the longest side of the bounding box as seen from the witness. What is used as a parameter to interpolate is that max size in meters. The scale to apply to the model is computed accordingly. (*)
  • Angular Size. The max angular size over the 3 axis as seen from the witness is what is used. What is used internally as a parameter to interpolate is the size (as defined just above) that produces that angular size. … not very satisfactory.
• Apparent Luminosity (*)
• 3D animation for the evolution of the Shape & Surface state / Texture animation time : anim_time
• 8 free parameters (additional undifferentiated parameters for any use, floating point numbers) (*)

Representing the Angular size Internally as Size at a Distance (50m by default for example) allows for a swapping between the two modes. The angular size can be computed at any time. make a function for it.

• addition/removal of key points (in order to control the evolution over time of all the parameters).
  • Each time a new key point N is inserted, one should specify the list of parameters for which this key point plays a role. All the other parameters will remain interpolated linearly from N-1 to N+1.
  • Each time a key point is removed, before removal, the user is recalled the parameters it did play on.
• User sets a time for each key point ? No. Rather only a duration for each segment (seconds). The time for each key point is computed.

• start, pause, restart, forward, backward (or a slider) for the time parameter (key)

If there is a 3D animation for the evolution of the shape of the UAP ? It is typically under control of a single anim_time parameter.

A save button should save the parameters and key points current values in a basic text file in Json format, list of structures. Using https://github.com/zanders3/json/

All parameters using “Système International” units. Degrees for angles.