Electro-optical imaging detector array for a moving vehicle which includes two axis image motion compensation and transfers pixels in row directions and column directions

• US 5,798,786 A
• Filed: 05/07/1996
• Issued: 08/25/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Goodrich Corporation (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Recon/Optical, Inc. (Bourns Incorporated)
• Inventors: Pfister, William R., Jerkatis, Kenneth J., James, Brian, Beran, Stephen R., Bennett, Russell A., Lareau, Andre G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Tommy P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): VINCENT, DAVID ROBERT
• Application Number:
  US08/646,509
• Time in Patent Office: 840 Days
• Field of Search: 250/330-334, 250/332, 250/370.08, 250/318, 235/447, 348/164, 348/143, 348/144, 348/145, 348/154, 348/155, 348/208, 348/317, 348/320
• US Class Current: 348/144
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 11/02 Picture taking arrangements specially adapted for photogrammetry or photographic surveying, e.g. controlling overlapping of pictures
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 15/006 Apparatus mounted on flying objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/68 for stable pick-up of the scene, e.g. compensating for camera body vibrations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6842 by controlling the scanning position, e.g. windowing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/00 Circuitry of solid-state image sensors [SSIS]; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/53 Control of the integration time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 3/155 Control of the image-sensor operation, e.g. image processing within the image-sensor

Abstract

An electro-optical imaging array having pixels arranged in rows and columns electronically compensates for image motion in the plane of the array regardless of whether the motion vector is in the row direction, the column direction, or in a diagonal direction, i.e., in some vector combination of row and column directions. In an aerial reconnaissance application, the image motion may be due to rotation of the aircraft about roll, pitch and/or yaw angles in addition to forward velocity of the aircraft. The image motion compensation is achieved with no moving parts and does not require a stabilized platform.

A camera control computer determines the magnitude and direction of the image motion from inertial navigation system inputs, including velocity, flight, and aircraft rotation information, and calculates pixel information transfer rates in the row and column directions. The pixel information transfer rates are supplied to a counter and clock driver circuit for the array. The pixel information in the array is transferred in the row and column direction in a step-wise fashion in the row and column directions at a rate and direction substantially matching the image motion. The array itself is provided with a gate and control line design to enable charge representing pixel information to be transferred in both the row and column directions.

Claims

1. An imaging system with two axis image motion compensation, said imaging system for installation aboard a vehicle capable of linear forward motion with respect to a scene external of said vehicle, said scene to be imaged by said systems, comprising:

an array of pixel elements arranged in rows and columns, said rows defining a row direction and said columns defining a column direction;

said pixel elements storing pixel information representing an image of said scene, said image having a motion with respect to said array of pixel elements, during exposure of the array to the scene, in an arbitrary combination of the row direction and the column direction, due to said linear forward motion of said imaging system and vehicle with respect to said scene as well as rotation of said imaging system and vehicle with respect to said scene;

a computer system, responsive to information from a vehicle navigation system as to said linear forward motion and rotation of said imaging system and vehicle with respect to said scene, for resolving said image motion into two orthogonal components, one component in said row direction and the other component in said column direction, said computer system further comprising a means for determining in advance of or during the exposure of said array to said scene the magnitude and direction of said image motion in said row and column directions with respect to said array of pixel elements; and

means responsive to said computer system for transferring said pixel information in said array in said row direction and in said column direction during exposure of said array to a scene in substantial synchronism with said motion of said image in said row direction and in said column direction, the transferring of pixel information in said row direction and in said column direction in substantial synchronism with said motion of said image in said row direction and in said column direction enabling resolution of an image generated by said array to be preserved, said transferring of pixel information compensating for both said linear forward motion and rotation of said imaging system and vehicle with respect to said scene.

2. The array of claim 1, wherein said array of cells are organized in a plurality of cells of said pixel elements, wherein said pixel information in at least one of said cells is transferred uniformly in said row direction and in said column direction for each of said pixel elements in said cell.

3. The array of claim 1, wherein said array comprises a charge-coupled device.

4. The array of claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein said array is installed in an airborne vehicle.

5. The array of claim 1, wherein said array is installed in an airborne vehicle, said airborne vehicle having a system generating information as to roll, pitch and yaw of said airborne vehicle, and wherein said means for transferring comprises:

calculating means responsive to said generating system for calculating a rotation matrix for the rotation of said airborne vehicle and for calculating an image disparity vector for said pixels from said rotation matrix; and

a line rate means responsive to said calculating means for determining pixel information transfer rates for said array in said row direction and in said column direction,

said pixel information in said array transferred in said row direction and said column direction according to said pixel information transfer rates to thereby compensate for said image motion.

6. The array of claim 5, wherein said means for transferring further comprises:

a first set of counters and clock drives for transferring said pixel information in said array in said row direction; and

a second set of counters and clock drives for transferring said pixel information in said array in said column direction.

26. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein said array of pixel elements comprises a detector sensitive to radiation from said scene in the infra-red portion of the spectrum.

27. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein said array of pixel elements comprises a C-MOS detector.

28. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein said array of pixel elements comprises a detector sensitive to radiation from said scene in the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum.

7. An aerial reconnaissance camera system for installation in an airborne vehicle and for generating an image of a scene which compensates for aircraft motion in a flight direction and compensates for roll, pitch, or yaw disturbances of said airborne vehicle, said airborne vehicle having a means installed in said aircraft for generating aircraft disturbance information, the camera system comprising:

an array of pixel elements arranged in rows and columns storing pixel information representing said scene, said rows defining a row direction and said columns defining a column direction;

means responsive to said aircraft disturbance information generating means for generating an image disparity vector for said pixel elements in said row direction and in said column direction and for generating a row pixel information transfer rate and a column pixel information transfer rate;

a pixel transfer means for moving pixel information from one of said pixel elements to another of said pixels in said row direction and in said column direction, said pixel transfer means transferring said pixel information at said row and column pixel information transfer rates;

said row and column pixel information transfer rates comprising the sum of an in-line-of flight transfer rate compensating for forward motion of said airborne vehicle and an image disparity transfer rate derived from said image disparity vector compensating for at least one of said roll, pitch and yaw disturbances of said airborne vehicle.

8. The aerial reconnaissance camera system of claim 7, wherein said array comprises a charge-coupled device.

9. The aerial reconnaissance camera system of claim 7, wherein said array comprises a charge injection device.

10. The aerial reconnaissance camera of claim 7, wherein said array comprises an infrared array.

11. The aerial reconnaissance camera of claim 7, wherein said pixels of said array are organized in a plurality of cells, each cell comprising a group of pixels forming a rectangle of at least one pixel in said column direction and at least one pixel in said row direction, wherein said pixel information in at least one of said cells is transferred uniformly in said row direction and said column direction for each of said pixel elements in said cell;

and wherein said row and column pixel information transfer rates are calculated independently for each of said cells in said array.

12. The aerial reconnaissance camera system of claim 11, wherein said plurality of cells comprises at least eight cells.

13. The aerial reconnaissance camera of claim 12, wherein said plurality of cells comprises between 30 and 600 cells.

14. The aerial reconnaissance camera system of claim 7, wherein said row and column pixel information transfer rates correct for roll, pitch and yaw rotation of said airborne vehicle during a time period in which said array is exposed to said scene.

15. A machine-readable storage medium storing a computer program for an imaging system, said computer program comprising:

a routine for computing a rotation matrix R and a drift matrix Δ

R from inputs comprising aerial reconnaissance vehicle roll, pitch, and yaw information;

a routine for computing an image disparity vector d_T (χ

), where d_T (χ

) comprises an image disparity for point (χ

) of an imaging array comprised of pixels arranged in rows and columns defining a row direction and a column direction;

##EQU7## and F=focal length of a lens for said array P=size of said pixels in said array

y=object points

v=forward velocity of said aerial reconnaissance vehicle

χ

=image points in said array

T=exposure time of said array; and

a routine for calculating a pixel information transfer rate for said array from said image disparity vector in said row direction and in said column direction.

16. A method for electronically compensating for relative motion of an image of a scene with respect to an electro-optical imaging array, said array having a plurality of pixel elements storing pixel information arranged in rows and columns, said rows defining a row direction and said columns defining a column direction, said array installed in a moving vehicle, comprising the steps of:

determining the image motion rates in the plane of said imaging array in said row direction and in said column direction resulting from forward motion of said vehicle and angular rotations of said vehicle from information as to forward motion and rotation of said moving vehicle received from a navigation system aboard said moving vehicle, said step of determining performed in advance of or during an exposure of said array to said scene;

exposing said array to said scene; and

transferring pixel information in said array in said row direction and said column direction at row direction rates and column direction rates during said exposure of said array to said scene substantially equal to said image motion rates to thereby compensate for said forward motion and angular rotation of said vehicle and preserve resolution of an image generated from said imaging array.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said array is organized in a plurality of cells of pixel elements, and wherein said steps of determining and transferring are performed for each of said cells independently.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein said row direction transfer rate is proportional to ##EQU8## and said column direction transfer rate is proportional to ##EQU9## wherein u_c^T is a transpose of a unit vector in said row direction and u_i^T is a unit vector in said column direction, and ##EQU10## is an image disparity vector.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein said array comprises a charge-coupled device.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein said array comprises a charge injection device.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein said array comprises an infrared array.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein said pixels of said array are organized in a plurality of cells, each cell comprising a group of pixels forming a rectangle of at least one pixel in said column direction and at least one pixel in said row direction, wherein said pixel information in at least one of said cells is transferred uniformly in said row direction and in said column direction for each of said pixel elements in said cell;

and wherein said row and column transfer rates are calculated independently for each of said cells in said array.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said plurality of cells comprises at least twenty cells.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said plurality of cell comprises between 30 and 600 cells.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein said row and column transfer rates compensate for roll, pitch and yaw rotation of said airborne vehicle during a time period in which said array is exposed to said scene.