Compound Eye Laser Tracking Device

• US 20160291115A1
• Filed: 03/30/2016
• Published: 10/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2015
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Luminit LLC
• Original Assignee: Luminit LLC
• Inventors: Ai, Jun, Dimov, Fedor, Kurtz, Russell
• Granted Patent: US 10,281,551 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F41G 7/226 Semi-active homing systems, i.e. comprising a receiver and involving auxiliary illuminating means, e.g. using auxiliary guiding missiles
• CPC Class Codes: F41G 7/2293 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/781 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/786 the desired condition being maintained automatically

Abstract

The Compound Eye Laser Illumination Seeker is a tracking system used to guide items to point at a laser-illuminated target, with the illumination being either pulsed or modulated at either a specific rate or within a range of rates. The device comprises a multiaperture compound receiver optics to collect the signal, a set of light guides to combine the received light into light representing individual angular sectors and redirect it to detectors whose output represents the illumination signal in that quadrant, a spectral filter, an angle filter, the set of detectors, and processing electronics. The output is an electronic signal indicating the angular difference between the pointing direction of the signal and the pointing direction of the tracking device.

Claims

1. A method for tracking an optical signal in the presence of optical noise, comprising

a lens array for collecting the signal;

filtering the signal to select specific wavelengths or wavelength ranges;

filtering the signal to limit the angular field of view of each lens;

directing the signal to one or more photodetectors;

and processing the output of the photodetector so that signals are produced which describe the angular difference between the pointing direction of the signal and the pointing direction of the tracking device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the lens array is mounted to a curved surface.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the lens array is biometrically inspired.

4. The method of claim 1 when a holographic system is used as the spectral and/or angular filter.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the holographic system is a substrate-guide holographic filter.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the method of directing the optical signal to a photodetector is an optical fiber bundle.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein directing the optical signal to the photodetector is a light guide.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein filtering the signal to limit angular field of view is with the light guide.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein filtering the signal to select specific wavelengths is with one or more optical bandpass filters.

10. The method of claim 9 when each optical bandpass filter is formed from a combination of a shortpass filter and a longpass filter.

11. The method of claim 1 when the photodetector comprises a single detector whose output indicates the position of the light on the detector.

12. The method of claim 1 when the photodetector comprises a plurality of detectors.

13. The method of claim 1 when the electronics include noise filtering.

14. The method of claim 1 when the electrical output signal is analog.

15. The method of claim 1 when the electrical output signal is digital.

17. The compound eye laser illumination seeker of claim 1 wherein the spectral filter comprises a holographic optical element lense.

18. The compound eye laser illumination seeker of claim 1 wherein the spectral filter includes two holographic optical element lenses.

19. The compound eye laser illumination seeker of claim 1 wherein the set of detectors comprise four photo detectors.

16. A compound eye laser illumination seeker, comprising multi aperture compound receiver optics, the optics having a lens array, the lens array being aligned with a light guide array, a spectral filter and a set of detectors.