Cooperative optical-imaging sensor array

• US 20050279917A1
• Filed: 06/11/2005
• Published: 12/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lamina Systems, Inc., University of Wyoming
• Original Assignee: Lamina Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Barrett, Steven F., Wilcox, Michael J., Cox, David F., Thelen, Donald C. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 8,344,342 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 250/208.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/28 involving image processing hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/44 using image operators, e.g. filters, edge density metrics or local histograms
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/20 Image preprocessing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/88 Image or video recognition using optical means, e.g. reference filters, holographic masks, frequency domain filters or spatial domain filters
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14601 Structural or functional details thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/69 Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming

Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing image primitives, such as edge polarity, edge magnitude, edge orientation, and edge displacement, and derivatives thereof, for an object are described. The data are obtained substantially simultaneously and processed in parallel such that multiple objects can be distinguished from one another in real time.

Claims

1. An optical-imaging apparatus comprising:

at least two optical sensors disposed in a chosen spatial configuration such that neighboring optical sensors included in said at least two optical sensors have overlapping fields of view, for receiving optical signals from an object at least a portion of the image of which object is located within the field of view of said at least two optical sensors, said at least two optical sensors having analog outputs;

means for measuring the analog outputs of said at least two optical sensors in response to the optical signals in parallel; and

means for processing the analog outputs to generate image features of the object.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said means for measuring the analog outputs of said at least two optical sensors performs the measurement substantially simultaneously.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said means for processing the analog outputs to generate image features comprises an operational amplifier.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image features comprise edge magnitude, primary orientation, displacement from one of said at least two optical sensors, exact orientation, and time derivative.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the displacement from one of said at least two optical sensors, and the exact orientation image features are substantially insensitive to changes in the amount of light impinging on said at least two optical sensors.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising means for bringing the object into focus on the at least two optical sensors.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said at least two optical sensors comprises seven optical sensors, and wherein the chosen spatial configuration comprises a substantially planar hexagon having a center with one of said seven optical sensors being disposed at the center, and each of said remaining six optical sensors being disposed at a vertex of the hexagon.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of sets of said at least two optical sensors having a second chosen spatial configuration, and means for measuring the analog outputs from each of said at least two optical sensors in each set such that object segmentation and object direction can be determined.

9. A method for obtaining image features from an object, comprising the steps of:

receiving optical signals from the object on at least two optical sensors having overlapping fields of view within which at least a portion of the image of the object is located, and analog outputs;

measuring the analog outputs of the at least two optical sensors responsive to the optical signals in parallel; and

processing the analog outputs to generate image features.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said step of measuring the analog outputs of the at least two optical sensors performs the measurement substantially simultaneously.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said step of processing the analog outputs to generate image features is performed using at least one operational amplifier.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the image features comprise edge magnitude, primary orientation, displacement from one of the at least two optical sensors, exact orientation, and time derivative.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the displacement from one of the at least two optical sensors and the exact orientation image features are substantially insensitive to changes in the amount of light impinging on the at least two optical sensors.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least two optical sensors comprises seven optical sensors, and wherein a spatial configuration of the seven optical sensors comprises a substantially planar hexagon having a center with one optical sensor being disposed at the center, and each of the remaining six optical sensors being disposed at a vertex of the hexagon.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

receiving optical signals from the object on a plurality of sets of at least two optical sensors having a second chosen spatial configuration, the at least two optical sensors of each of the plurality of sets having overlapping fields of view within which at least a portion of the image of the object is located, and analog outputs;

measuring the analog outputs of the at least two optical sensors responsive to the optical signals in parallel in each of the plurality of sets; and

processing the analog outputs to generate image features from each set such that object segmentation and object direction can be determined.