Importance

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Abstract

A navigation system particularly adapted for ships making a passing within a harbor or the like, utilizing signal inputs from on-board vessel position determining equipment such as Loran or Decca apparatus and an on-board object detecting equipment such as a radar or sonar apparatus. The system further includes an on-board vessel position computer which operates in a differential Loran mode in response to observed Loran time differences, stored data from an initial calibration, and Loran grid offset data from an on-shore monitor system to compute a highly accurate current or present position fix in longitude and latitude whereupon the computer causes a predetermined electronic chart to be displayed in color on the screen of a cathode ray tube, being generated from a plurality of electronic charts stored in the form of digital files in memory. The selected chart, together with the present position of the ship, is displayed along with preselected alpha-numeric indicia of data relating to bearings, way points, ranges, 'time to go', etc., also generated in accordance with the computed vessel position. Radar target returns of the local land mass and other stationary moving targets are additionally received by the ship's radar. The radar image of the target echoes is next referenced to and superimposed on the electronic chart generated; however, the radar's land mass echoes are suppressed in favor of the electronic chart land mass while displaying all other targets.

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First Claim