Video camera with interchangable optical sensors
First Claim
1. A video camera system for rendering a video image of a scene, comprising:
- an optical system having an field of view centered by an optical axis and optical elements configured to form a focused scene image at an image plane;
a fixed base plate for fixedly supporting the optical system;
a movable plate movably supported with respect to the fixed base plate for movement along a linear motion axis that is substantially orthogonal to the optical axis;
a sensor assembly fixedly attached to the movable plate comprising a plurality of optical sensors each having a substantially planar photo active area centered by a central axis suitable for generating electrical signals in proportion to an irradiance level generated by the scene image; and
,an actuator disposed between the fixed base plate and the movable plate for moving the movable plate along the linear motion axis to position any one of the plurality of optical sensors to an imaging position wherein the active area of the optical sensor in the imaging position is substantially coplanar with the image plane and the central axis of the optical sensor in the imaging position is substantially coaxially aligned with the with the optical axis.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A video camera 100 for remote operation or surveillance has a lens system 1 supported on a fixed base plate 26 and a pair of image sensors 14, 15, 204 mounted onto a movable plate 13. A pair of balls slides 11, 12 are attached to the fixed base plate 26 and the movable plate 13 to provide linear movement of the movable plate along a linear motion axis 50. An actuator 5 is disposed between the fixed base plate 26 and the movable plate 13 to move the movable plate 13 and each of the image sensors 14, 15, 204 along the linear motion axis 50 to dispose either the first image sensor 14 or the second image sensor 15 in and imagining position where the lens system 1 forms a scene image onto its active surface. In a preferred embodiment, the first image sensor 14 is an Electron Multiplication CCD array suitable for night time imaging and the second sensor 15 is a color CCD array suitable for day light imaging. The invention allows for multiple resolutions, multiple fields of view, multiple spectral bands or all three capabilities using a single lens system 1 without the efficiency losses in photon gathering and other shortcomings of other techniques commonly in use today.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A video camera system for rendering a video image of a scene, comprising:
-
an optical system having an field of view centered by an optical axis and optical elements configured to form a focused scene image at an image plane; a fixed base plate for fixedly supporting the optical system; a movable plate movably supported with respect to the fixed base plate for movement along a linear motion axis that is substantially orthogonal to the optical axis; a sensor assembly fixedly attached to the movable plate comprising a plurality of optical sensors each having a substantially planar photo active area centered by a central axis suitable for generating electrical signals in proportion to an irradiance level generated by the scene image; and
,an actuator disposed between the fixed base plate and the movable plate for moving the movable plate along the linear motion axis to position any one of the plurality of optical sensors to an imaging position wherein the active area of the optical sensor in the imaging position is substantially coplanar with the image plane and the central axis of the optical sensor in the imaging position is substantially coaxially aligned with the with the optical axis. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A camera system comprising:
-
a telescope optical system for forming a scene image at an image plane; a fixed base plate for supporting the telescope optical system; a movable plate supported for movement along a linear motion axis with respect to the fixed base plate; a first focal plane array, having an active area suitable for generating image signals in response to an image being formed thereon, fixedly attached to the movable plate at a first position; a second focal plane array, having an active area suitable for generating image signals in response to an image being formed thereon, fixedly attached to the movable plate at a second position; first means for rendering a video image based on the image signals generated by the first focal plane array; second means for rendering a video image based on the image signals generated by the second focal plane array; and
,actuator means disposed between the fixed base plate and the movable plate for moving the movable plate along the linear motion axis to position one of the first focal plane array and the second focal plane array at an imaging position wherein the active area of the focal plane array at the imaging position is substantially coplanar with the image plane. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
-
-
14. A method for rendering video images comprising the steps of:
-
supporting an optical system on a fixed base plate; forming a scene image at an image plane of the optical system; supporting a plurality of optical sensors on a moveable plate movably supported for motion along a linear motion axis with respect to the fixed base plate and the image plane; translating the movable plate with respect to the image plane to position a selected one of the plurality of optical sensors at an imaging position to thereby form the scene image onto a photo active surface of the optical sensor positioned at the imaging position; and
,rendering a video image of the scene image with the selected one of the plurality of optical sensors. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A method for operating a video camera comprising the steps of:
supporting an optical system on a fixed base plate; supporting the fixed base plate on a motorized gimbal mount configured to point the optical system; forming a scene image at an image plane of the optical system; supporting two optical sensors on a moveable plate supported for motion along a linear motion axis with respect to the fixed base plate and the image plane; translating the movable plate to position a first optical sensor configured as a focal plane array at an imaging position wherein the scene image is formed onto an active area of the focal plane array and converted to a video image of the scene image; viewing a video image of the scene image to find an illuminated target in the scene image; translating the movable plate to position a second optical sensor configured as a quadrant detector at the imaging position wherein the quadrant detector generates electrical signals in proportion to irradiance values in each of four quadrants of the scene image; processing the electrical signals generated by the quadrant detector and driving the motorized gimbal mount to point the camera system at a center of the illuminated target.
Specification