Panoramic image generating system

• US 4,195,911 A
• Filed: 07/25/1977
• Issued: 04/01/1980
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/1976
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Le Materiel Telephonique
• Original Assignee: Le Materiel Telephonique
• Inventors: Bougon, Pierre P. A., Weiss, Pierre M., Parmentier, Alain R. A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Evans, F. L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): de los Reyes, B. W.
• Application Number:
  US05/818,413
• Time in Patent Office: 981 Days
• Field of Search: 350/171, 350/174, 350/55, 350/112, 350/198, 350/182, 350/200, 35/11 A, 35/10.2, 358/103, 353/111
• US Class Current: 348/38
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/022 Viewing apparatus G02B27/04, G02B27/06, G02B27/08 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/06 for teaching control of ships, boats, or other waterborne vehicles

Abstract

A continuous panoramic image seen at infinity from an observation space E is obtained from a prismatic image whose facets consist of alternate and edge-to-edge real images I11, I12, . . . and virtual images I'"'"'21, 22, . . . , and by reflection of this prismatic image in a set of sperical concave mirrors MC1, MC2, . . . forming a reflection area.

The real images are produced by a first set of image generators M11, M12, . . . The virtual images are the conjugates by reflection in the semi-transparent plane mirrors L1, L2, . . . of images I21, I22, . . . produced by a second set of image generators M21, M22, . . . Amongst other applications, that of ship-control training equipment.

Claims

1. Apparatus for generating an uninterrupted evolutive panoramic image comprising:

a plurality of first television monitors, evenly set in an arc of a first circle, with their screens outwardly oriented and equally distant from the axis of said first circle, for generating separated portions of a prismatic image of an evolutive panorama;

a plurality of second television monitors, identical to the first ones and evenly set in an arc of a second circle larger than said first circle, with their screens inwardly oriented and each oriented to the gap between successive ones of said first television monitors, for generating missing portions of said prismatic image corresponding to the missing parts of said panorama;

a plurality of semi-transparent plane mirrors joined edge to edge and inserted between the screens of said first and said second television monitors and inwardly bent for combining said separated and said missing portions of image in an uninterrupted prismatic image, observable from the outside of said semi-transparent plane mirrors;

a plurality of concave mirrors juxtaposed in a section limited in width of a reflecting subequatorial zone centred on said axis and located farther from it than said second television monitors, for creating an uninterrupted evolutive panoramic image seen at infinity in said reflecting zone from an inner and limited observation region which surrounds said axis by means of a reflexion of said uninterrupted prismatic image in said reflecting means.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the screens of said first and said second television monitors are staggered (i.e. in quincunx) between themselves each screen facing the gap between the two nearest screens situated on the other side of said semi-transparent mirrors.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the distance between the screens of two successive first television monitors is equal to the length of the screen of the second television monitor facing them.

4. Apparatus for generating an uninterrupted evolutive panoramic image comprising:

a plurality of first television monitors evenly set in a first circle, with their screens outwardly oriented and equally distant from the axis of said first circle, for generating separated portions of a prismatic image of an evolutive panorama;

a plurality of second television monitors evenly set in a second circle larger than said first circle, with their screens inwardly oriented and each oriented to the gap between the next two said first television monitors, for generating missing portions of said prismatic image corresponding to the missing parts of said panorama;

a plurality of semi-transparent plane mirrors joined edge to edge and inserted between the screens of said first and said second television monitors and inwardly bent for combining said separated and said missing portions of image in an uninterrupted prismatic image, observable from the outside of said semi-transparent plane mirrors;

a plurality of concave mirrors juxtaposed in a reflecting subequatorial zone centred on said axis and located farther from it than said second television monitors, for creating an uninterrupted evolutive panoramic image seen at infinity in said reflecting zone from an inner and limited observation region which surrounds said axis by means of a reflexion of said uninterrupted convex evolutive panoramic image in said reflecting means.