Device for optical-cable transport and combination of light images

• US 4,735,473 A
• Filed: 05/05/1986
• Issued: 04/05/1988
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/1985
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Thomson-CSF (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: Thomson-CSF (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Grasdepot, Francois, Migozzi, Jean B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Arnold, Bruce Y.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lerner, Martin
• Application Number:
  US06/860,010
• Time in Patent Office: 701 Days
• Field of Search: 350/3.72, 350/174, 350/3.7, 350/96.25
• US Class Current: 359/15
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/012 comprising devices for attenuating parasitic image effects
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0145 creating an intermediate image
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0103 comprising holographic elements
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0172 characterised by optical features
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/00 Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings

Abstract

In a device for optical-cable transport and combination of light images, the ends of an optical cable forming part of the device are coupled with lenses which are in turn associated with an optical system for dispersing radiation as a function of the wavelength in order to suppress any raster effect. This optical system is constituted at one end of the optical cable by a reflecting holographic mirror, the chromatic aberrations of which form the dispersion. At the other end of the cable, the optical system consists of a partially transparent holographic mirror for reflecting a first image to be transported and re-forming this image by suppressing the aberrations and combining said first image with a second image. The first image can be a synthetic image displayed on a CRT indicator and the second image can be the surrounding landscape in an application such as a helmet sight visor.

Claims

1. A device for transmitting and combining light images in which a first light image is transported by means of an optical cable formed by an ordered bundle of optical fibers terminating in two flat end faces, an entrance face and an exit face, an entrance lens for forming said first image to be transmitted on the entrance face and an exit lens for transferring the image formed on the exit face in order to permit observation of said image, means being provided for eliminating the raster effect produced by the cable, said eliminating means being constituted by a first optical element upstream of the entrance lens for dispersing the received radiation as a function of the wavelength and a second optical element downstream of the exit lens for inversely combining the emergent radiation and re-forming said first image, said dispersive optical elements being formed by two holographic optical elements, a first holographic element being constituted by a mirror for reflecting a first predetermined spectral band corresponding to said first image, said dispersion being caused by chromatic aberrations exhibited by the first holographic element, the second element being constituted by a partially transparent mirror on the one hand for inversely reflecting the radiation corresponding to said first spectral band and eliminating said aberrations and on the other hand for transmitting the radiation corresponding to a second spectral band which corresponds to a second image to be combined with the first, no wavelength of said first band being contained in said second band.

2. A device according to claim 1, wherein the first image is produced by a visual display device in which the spectrum is reduced to a narrow delimited spectral band of the visible spectrum, said first image being passed through a lens in order to be transmitted in the form of parallel rays to the first holographic optical element, and wherein said second image corresponds to a view of the external landscape through the second holographic element.

3. A device according to claim 2, wherein the first holographic element produces a reflection which is limited to the radiation included in the spectral band corresponding to said first image, wherein the second optical element exhibits in reflection the same response characteristic as the first holographic element and wherein said second optical element exhibits in transmission a response throughout the entire visible spectrum except within the delimited band aforesaid.

4. A device according to claim 2 and constituting a sight visor mounted on a helmet, wherein the second holographic element and the exit lens are carried by the helmet together with a first end of the optical cable whose second end is coupled to elements placed at a distance and not attached to the helmet, said elements being grouped together and constituted by the exit lens, the first holographic optical element and means for generating said first image.

5. A device according to claim 1, wherein the radiation which emerges from the second holographic element by reflection and by transmission is passed through an optical lens which focuses said radiation on a video image pickup device.

6. A device according to claim 1, wherein said first image corresponds to a view of the external landscape and the second image corresponds to a view of an image produced by a visual display device which has a narrow emission spectrum, the radiation corresponding to the first image being received directly in the form of parallel rays by the first holographic optical element, the radiation corresponding to said second image being produced by the visual display device which is followed by an optical lens for producing it in the form of parallel rays at the entrance of the second holographic element.