TSC has developed the RealIR™ application programming interface (API) to provide a toolkit for real-time sensor simulation developers.  The RealIR API implements physics-based models for thermal IR sensor simulation, compatible with standard scene database formats and real-time simulation engines.  The API has been incorporated in simulations for both man-in-the-loop training systems and hardware-in-the-loop simulation systems.

The RealIR API meets the needs of users who require a dynamic IR simulation that can be rapidly reconfigured during the simulation run.  The API provides complete functionality for incorporating a physics-based IR model into a real-time simulation.  Using the API, a simulation application can continuously update the simulated IR sensor imagery.  The RealIR API functions include sensor specification, real-time modification of environment and atmosphere, physics-based computation of scene temperatures and radiances, atmospheric propagation using LOWTRAN or MODTRAN, and visualization with 8, 12, or 16-bit image depths.  The API also provides automatic conversion of terrain and target textures to physically correct IR textures.

In addition to the IR physics library, the RealIR API contains functions for loading OpenFlight™ target and terrain models, predicting their IR signatures, and performing the real-time visualization for a moving, user-specified platform.  The API also performs physics-based atmospheric effects that vary with sensor altitude and line of sight.  

IR Simulation Ship (Video Clip)  
IR Simulation Village Scenario (Video Clip)                 

For more information please download the RealIR Fact Sheet (PDF, 142KB)