Optical system for single camera stereo video
First Claim
1. A camera for generating a stereo video signal, said camera comprising:
- an image sensor responsive to an image projected thereon;
an optical assembly having first and second optical channels that include respective focusing lenses disposed to focus substantially coincident portions of respective fields of view of the first and second optical channels onto abutting regions of said image sensor; and
a video generation circuit coupled to sample the abutting regions of said image sensor to generate said stereo video signal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A mechanism and method for recording stereo video with standard camera system electronics and a uniquely adapted optical assembly is disclosed. The optical assembly comprises left and right optical channels disposed to capture and project separate left and right images onto a single image sensor such that the boundary between the projected images is sharply delineated with no substantial overlap or gap. The viewpoints of the left and right optical channels are separated by a distance, d, such that the captured images are differentiated to produce a stereo image pair. By proper disposition of the left and right optical channels, stereo image pairs exhibiting full stereo overlap without keystone distortion are obtained. One image of the stereo pair is produced for visualization by the left eye and the other image is produced for visualization by the right eye. Alternatively, the images can be interrogated by a computer system for generating three dimensional position data. The image sensor is scanned in a standard fashion such that the left and right images are sampled by the video sampling circuitry of the camera unit at substantially the same time. In one mode, a pair of anamorphic lenses compress the left and right images along the axis of the image sensor scan lines so that each video field represents a stereo pair of images at a substantially unity anamorphic ratio and at an aspect ratio substantially equal to that of the image sensor. In a another mode, a conventional (non-distorting) lens is utilized and each video frame represents a pair of images having an aspect ratio equal to one-half that of the image sensor. A stereo playback mechanism and method is also disclosed.
251 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A camera for generating a stereo video signal, said camera comprising:
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an image sensor responsive to an image projected thereon; an optical assembly having first and second optical channels that include respective focusing lenses disposed to focus substantially coincident portions of respective fields of view of the first and second optical channels onto abutting regions of said image sensor; and a video generation circuit coupled to sample the abutting regions of said image sensor to generate said stereo video signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A camera for generating a stereo video signal, said camera comprising:
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an image sensor responsive to an image projected thereon; first and second optical channels having respective focusing lenses that are translatable in a direction transverse to their respective optical axes to project onto abutting regions of said image sensor portions of respective fields of view of the first and second optical channels that are substantially coincident; and a video generation circuit coupled to sample the abutting regions of said image sensor to generate said stereo video signal. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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11. A video system for displaying a three dimensional view, said video system comprising:
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an image sensor responsive to an image projected thereon; an optical assembly having first and second optical channels that include respective focusing lenses disposed to focus substantially coincident portions of respective fields of view of the first and second optical channels onto abutting regions of said image sensor; a video generation circuit coupled to sample the abutting regions of said image sensor to generate a stereo video signal; and a video display device coupled to said video generation circuit for receiving the stereo video signal and to display a three dimensional view therefrom. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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13. In a camera, a method of generating a stereo video signal, said method comprising the steps of:
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positioning a first focusing lens in a first optical assembly to select a portion of a field of view of the first optical assembly; positioning a second focusing lens in a second optical assembly to select a portion of a field of view of the second optical assembly the portion of the field of view of the second optical assembly being substantially coincident with the portion of the field of view of the first optical assembly; projecting the portions of the fields of view of the first and second optical assemblies onto respective abutting regions of an image sensor; and
sampling the abutting regions of the image sensor to generate said stereo video signal.
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14. In a video system, a method of displaying a three dimensional view, said method comprising the steps of:
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positioning a first focusing lens in a first optical assembly to select a portion of a field of view of the first optical assembly; positioning a second focusing lens in a second optical assembly to select a portion of a field of view of the second optical assembly, the portion of the field of view of the second optical assembly being substantially coincident with the portion of the field of view of the first optical assembly; projecting the portions of the fields of view of the first and second optical assemblies onto respective abutting regions of an image sensor; and
sampling the abutting regions of the image sensor to generate a stereo video signal; anddisplaying a three dimensional view based on the stereo video signal. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification