Flight-appropriate 3D Terrain-rendering Toolkit for Synthetic Vision, Phase I

TerraMetrics proposes an SBIR Phase I R/R&D effort to develop a key 3D terrain-rendering technology that provides the basis for successful commercial deployment of flight-qualified Synthetic Vision (SV) systems. The proposed innovation exploits the use of an encoded terrain data storage format coupled with real-time, terrain-block processing that inherently provides true, display-limited rendering accuracy and deterministic frame rates, eliminates "vertex-popping" artifacts, and supports a spherical rendering model as well as lightweight computer and data storage platform requirements. Significant preceding computer graphics research has targeted terrain rendering, but the focus has been on non-rigorous, ground-based visualization/simulation (VisSim) and gaming applications. The accuracy and performance demands of a flight-deployable, SVS terrain-rendering environment have not been adequately addressed to date, due to minimal commercial demand. The proposed innovation provides a flight-qualifiable, SV avionics 3D terrain-rendering solution to NASA?s Aviation Safety Program (AvSP) and downstream SV commercial embodiments.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.