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What I find kinda interesting about this is the HUD apparently being able to "lock on" or track or whatever the object. Are these HUD things around the object

What I find kinda interesting about this is the HUD apparently being able to "lock on" or track or whatever the object. Are these HUD things around the object just visual bounding boxes around something with high contrast, or are the HUDs doing sensor fusion with IR and radar and other things? Not just for UFOs but I've seen similar things from gun cam footage in Iraq etc and wondered how it works.

kitteh 7y ago
No active radar. All the tracking pods have FLIR/CCDs on them that allow tracking of objects (which I believe is based upon contrasting white hot / black hot returns). A "point track" for example would allow you to track an object on the ground as it is moving (important when using laser guided ordinance where the beam has to follow it).
- newnewpdro 7y ago
  nit: ordnance
fit2rule 7y ago
>Are these HUD things around the object just visual bounding boxes around something with high contrast, or are the HUDs doing sensor fusion with IR and radar and other things? All of the above, and probably a bit more we're not really privy to.
thdrdt 7y ago
There is a Joe Rogan podcast with David Fravor, a pilot who also saw it. I believe he explains it's all visual locking but there are a lot if different camera types. https://youtu.be/Eco2s3-0zsQ https://youtu.be/Eco2s3-0zsQ
- djsumdog 7y ago
  Yep, I was going to mention that podcast. They have a camera pod that can literally just track fast moving objects visually (probably uses computer vision stuff internally). He also mentions how the camera pods can switch between standard, IR and a few other modes. The IR didn't show any heat large heat sources, which you'd see on a commercial jet liner or fighter jet.
- mathgenius 7y ago
  I'm interested, but this is all I have to say about it: get a bunch of physicists in a room and I'm sure they could come up with 100 other possible theories for this other than "aliens did it". I'm not saying these theories will be particularly convincing, some of them may involve time-travel (physicists are a whacky bunch) but these UFO people seem to be locked into a way of thinking of these things as solid objects zooming around, "an f-18 couldn't do that" etc. etc. Meh.
dharmab 7y ago
Combination of IR contrast, sensor slaving and manual tracking, configured by the pilot as needed. The DCS flight simulator series has a pretty decent targeting pod simulation.
dotancohen 7y ago
> What I find kinda interesting about this is the HUD apparently > being able to "lock on" or track or whatever the object. And that's the answer to what this object was. The tracking devices do not track regularly-flying objects so well, so how was this not-by-the-laws-of-physics object tracked? Because the object was dirt on the lens. This has been proven by several different methods. Firstly, the object stays on the same spot on the screen. Second, it rotates when the camera gimbal locks and rotates. Third, the filename of the published file is actually "GimbalLock" or something of the sort.
- cairo_x 7y ago
  ... except both pilots saw the object using their eyeballs through the window.
  - mileycyrusXOXO 7y ago
    Not both, one did.
    - cairo_x 7y ago
      Yes both. One of the pilots (Fravor) went on Joe Rogan. He said his buddy stayed up circling and was also able to eyeball the craft. He wanted to get up close to it, and she covered him from above. Apparently his buddy got really disturbed and angry about the whole thing--that this stuff has been going on and that they weren't warned properly about it. They both got the idea it was just a 'weird little thing' from the ship's radar operators, but when they actually saw it they both were obviously kind of gobsmacked. The unnamed female pilot apparently got kind of outraged that there was no procedure or information being shared in an organized way. Like nobody knows really what to even do in these situations because it's not really seriously talked about. Like I said, the radar operators were seeing these things before the pilots even got into the air. So that rules out dust. I was thinking more some kind of Russian disinformation operation--a low mass kite kind of craft remotely powered or towed by a fast underwater sister drone. Both operated from a submarine for example (Fravor reported large wave disturbances below the craft that did not match the craft's shape).

kitteh 7y ago

No active radar. All the tracking pods have FLIR/CCDs on them that allow tracking of objects (which I believe is based upon contrasting white hot / black hot returns). A "point track" for example would allow you to track an object on the ground as it is moving (important when using laser guided ordinance where the beam has to follow it).

newnewpdro 7y ago
nit: ordnance

fit2rule 7y ago

>Are these HUD things around the object just visual bounding boxes around something with high contrast, or are the HUDs doing sensor fusion with IR and radar and other things? All of the above, and probably a bit more we're not really privy to.

thdrdt 7y ago

There is a Joe Rogan podcast with David Fravor, a pilot who also saw it. I believe he explains it's all visual locking but there are a lot if different camera types. https://youtu.be/Eco2s3-0zsQ https://youtu.be/Eco2s3-0zsQ

djsumdog 7y ago
Yep, I was going to mention that podcast. They have a camera pod that can literally just track fast moving objects visually (probably uses computer vision stuff internally). He also mentions how the camera pods can switch between standard, IR and a few other modes. The IR didn't show any heat large heat sources, which you'd see on a commercial jet liner or fighter jet.
mathgenius 7y ago
I'm interested, but this is all I have to say about it: get a bunch of physicists in a room and I'm sure they could come up with 100 other possible theories for this other than "aliens did it". I'm not saying these theories will be particularly convincing, some of them may involve time-travel (physicists are a whacky bunch) but these UFO people seem to be locked into a way of thinking of these things as solid objects zooming around, "an f-18 couldn't do that" etc. etc. Meh.

dharmab 7y ago

Combination of IR contrast, sensor slaving and manual tracking, configured by the pilot as needed. The DCS flight simulator series has a pretty decent targeting pod simulation.

dotancohen 7y ago

> What I find kinda interesting about this is the HUD apparently > being able to "lock on" or track or whatever the object. And that's the answer to what this object was. The tracking devices do not track regularly-flying objects so well, so how was this not-by-the-laws-of-physics object tracked? Because the object was dirt on the lens. This has been proven by several different methods. Firstly, the object stays on the same spot on the screen. Second, it rotates when the camera gimbal locks and rotates. Third, the filename of the published file is actually "GimbalLock" or something of the sort.

cairo_x 7y ago
... except both pilots saw the object using their eyeballs through the window.
- mileycyrusXOXO 7y ago
  Not both, one did.
  - cairo_x 7y ago
    Yes both. One of the pilots (Fravor) went on Joe Rogan. He said his buddy stayed up circling and was also able to eyeball the craft. He wanted to get up close to it, and she covered him from above. Apparently his buddy got really disturbed and angry about the whole thing--that this stuff has been going on and that they weren't warned properly about it. They both got the idea it was just a 'weird little thing' from the ship's radar operators, but when they actually saw it they both were obviously kind of gobsmacked. The unnamed female pilot apparently got kind of outraged that there was no procedure or information being shared in an organized way. Like nobody knows really what to even do in these situations because it's not really seriously talked about. Like I said, the radar operators were seeing these things before the pilots even got into the air. So that rules out dust. I was thinking more some kind of Russian disinformation operation--a low mass kite kind of craft remotely powered or towed by a fast underwater sister drone. Both operated from a submarine for example (Fravor reported large wave disturbances below the craft that did not match the craft's shape).