Method and apparatus for dodecahedral imaging system
First Claim
1. A method for photographing and projecting a field of view up to a complete sphere, including the steps of:
- centering a dodecahedron inside a concentric sphere representing a spherical field of view, and evert extension of the faces of said dodecadedron onto said sphere, thereby forming twelve spherical sections divided by pentagonal borders,photographing a composite image of a wide field of view up to a complete sphere, comprising a plurality of camera images and covering a total area of more than one section, by means of at least one camera, with each camera image being formed through a camera lens having an optical axis aligned to said dodecahedron, said camera lens also having a field of view sufficient to produce a camera image including at least one section'"'"'s pentagonal border,cropping said camera image to said pentagonal border,aligning an array of projectors associated respectively with said camera images, each projector having a projector lens having an optical axis aligned to said dodecahedron,projecting said composite image by said array of projectors onto a concentric screen, thereby producing through a simultaneous display of adjacent camera images an apparently continuous composite picture of said wide field of view up to a complete sphere.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A dodecahedral environmental photography and projection system based on a pentagonal format is disclosed, designed for a modular compound camera and projector system aligned according to the dodecahedron, for the photography and projection of apparently continuous images across the interior surface of a dome or spherical theater. The use of a compound system provides better resolution that a single-camera system,and the use of a pentagonal picture as a standard shape allows complete coverage of a spherical surface, and greater use of the available lens image than existing rectangular formats. By the addition of camera and projection modules, this system enables photography and projection up to a total spherical field of view, and practical application of video technology to a dome theater. A masking processor is also provided to control the shape of the projected video image, enabling projection of compound images of variable overall shape and size. An electro-optical lens is also described, sufficient to produce the effect of a lens with two or three optical centers, so that one lens can cover more than one view. With a dual-center lens, the number of camera modules required is thereby halved, or if the number of camera modules remains the same and their dual views are made to overlap, the effective resolution of the system is thereby doubled.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A method for photographing and projecting a field of view up to a complete sphere, including the steps of:
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centering a dodecahedron inside a concentric sphere representing a spherical field of view, and evert extension of the faces of said dodecadedron onto said sphere, thereby forming twelve spherical sections divided by pentagonal borders, photographing a composite image of a wide field of view up to a complete sphere, comprising a plurality of camera images and covering a total area of more than one section, by means of at least one camera, with each camera image being formed through a camera lens having an optical axis aligned to said dodecahedron, said camera lens also having a field of view sufficient to produce a camera image including at least one section'"'"'s pentagonal border, cropping said camera image to said pentagonal border, aligning an array of projectors associated respectively with said camera images, each projector having a projector lens having an optical axis aligned to said dodecahedron, projecting said composite image by said array of projectors onto a concentric screen, thereby producing through a simultaneous display of adjacent camera images an apparently continuous composite picture of said wide field of view up to a complete sphere. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An apparatus for photographing and projecting a wide field of view up to a complete sphere, including:
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a composite camera using an array of interchangable camera modules, each of said camera modules having a camera lens with an optical axis aligned to a dodecahedron, and a conical angle of view of at least 74 degrees, sufficient to encompass at least one pentagonal division corresponding to a face of said dodecahedron, as projected on a spherical field of view, cropping means to limit the camera image of said pentagonal division from each camera module to a pentagonal shape equivalent to a contracted version of its respective face, so that each camera module'"'"'s part of the field of view is equal to at least one pentagonal division, thereby photographing individual parts of a wide field of view up to a complete sphere, a composite projector comprising an array of interchangable projection modules associated respectively with said camera modules, each of said projection modules having a projector lens with an optical axis aligned to said dodecahedron, said array of interchangable projection modules operable to display on a concentric surface its respective camera modules'"'"' images in a size and shape equal to said pentagonal divisions, thereby producing through a simultaneous display of adjacent camera images an apparently continuous picture over said wide field of view up to a complete sphere. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. An optical apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of optical devices selected from the group consisting of cameras and projectors, each containing a lens mount and a lens having an an angle of view of at least 74 degrees attached to said lens mount, for creating a directed stream of light along an optical axis, a plurality of interchangable modular support structures, each modular support structure comprising at least five sides equidistant from a central axis, with each side including at least one planar alignment surface at an average angle of approximately 58.28 degrees from a plane perpendicular to said central axis, and mounting means to enable said modular support structure to contain one of said optical devices in such a manner that said optical axis of said lens is made nearly congruent to said central axis, attachment means for locking adjacent modular support structures together along contiguous planar alignment surfaces, so that the optical axes of any optical devices contained within said adjacent modular support structures will be aligned to meet near a central point, with each optical axis also made perpendicular to the center of one face of a pentagonal dodecahedron approximately concentric to said central point.
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33. An optical apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of optical devices selected from the group consisting of cameras and projectors, each containing a lens mount and a lens having an an angle of view of at least 140 degrees attached to said lens mount, for creating a directed stream of light along an optical axis, a plurality of modular support structures, each comprising at least three sides around a main axis, and mounting means to enable said modular support structure to contain one of said optical devices in such a manner that said main axis, attachment means for locking adjacent modular support structures together side to side, so that the optical axes of any optical devices contained within said adjacent modular support structures will be aligned to meet near a central point, with each optical axis also made perpendicular to the center of one edge of a pentagonal dodecahedron approximately concentric to said central point.
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34. An optical apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of optical devices selected from the group consisting of cameras and projectors, each containing a lens mount and a lens having an an angle of view of at least 152 degrees attached to said lens mount, for creating a directed stream of light along an optical axis, a plurality of modular support structures, each comprising at least three sides around a main axis, and mounting means to enable said modular support structure to contain one of said optical devices in such a manner that said optical axis of said lens is made nearly congruent to said main axis, attachment means for locking adjacent modular support structures together side to side, so that the optical axes of any optical devices contained within said adjacent modular support structures will be aligned to meet near a central point, with each optical axis also made perpendicular to one vertex of a pentagonal dodecahedron approximately concentric to said central point.
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Specification