High resolution viewing system

• US 5,793,527 A
• Filed: 06/30/1995
• Issued: 08/11/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: FullView, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Nalwa, Vishvjit Singh
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THONG Q
• Application Number:
  US08/497,673
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: 359/363, 359/367, 359/399-403, 359/406, 359/429, 359/431, 359/503-506, 359/515, 359/527, 359/546, 359/618, 359/627, 359/633, 359/831, 359/833-836 , 359/850-851, 359/879, 348/36-39, 353/30, 353/37, 353/94, 353/98-99, 352/69-71
• US Class Current: 359/403
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/1066 for enhancing image performance, like resolution, pixel numbers, dual magnifications or dynamic range, by tiling, slicing or overlapping fields of view
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/143 using macroscopically faceted or segmented reflective surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/58 Means for changing the camera field of view without moving the camera body, e.g. nutating or panning of optics or image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/41 Extracting pixel data from a plurality of image sensors simultaneously picking up an image, e.g. for increasing the field of view by combining the outputs of a plurality of sensors

Abstract

A pyramid shaped group of reflective surfaces segment a field of view. Each of the reflective surfaces of the pyramid provides a segment of the field of view to a lens which focuses the segment onto a sensor. The pyramid shaped collection of reflective surfaces provide each of the sensors with a common center of projection. This avoids distortions that may result from using sensors with differing centers of projection. The sensors provide an electronic representation of the image for storage or other uses. The sensor used to receive each segment may have a low resolution, but since the low resolution sensor is only capturing a segment of the image, the overall effect is to capture the entire image at a high resolution.

Claims

1. A high resolution viewing system, comprising:

a plurality of image processing devices; and

a pyramid shaped element having a plurality of reflective side facets, each of the plurality of reflective side facets reflecting a portion of a field of view from one direction to one of the plurality of image processing devices, and each of the image processing devices having a lens with a center of projection on a line in a plane, the plane being parallel to a base of the pyramid shaped element and containing a vertex of the pyramid shaped element, and the line being perpendicular to a base line formed by an intersection of the base and the reflective side facet providing the portion of the image to the image processing device.

2. The high resolution viewing system of claim 1, wherein the pyramid has four reflective side facets.

3. The high resolution viewing system of claim 1, wherein the pyramid has eight reflective side facets.

4. The high resolution viewing system of claim 1, wherein the image processing devices are image gathering devices.

5. The high resolution viewing system of claim 1, wherein the image processing devices are image producing devices.