Binocular night vision goggles, where one ocular could be moved from the beam path

• US 5,969,859 A
• Filed: 06/22/1998
• Issued: 10/19/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Simrad Optronics A/S
• Original Assignee: Simrad Optronics A/S
• Inventors: Afsenius, Sven-.ANG.ke
• Primary Examiner(s): Spyrou, Cassandra
• Assistant Examiner(s): Robinson, Mark A.
• Application Number:
  US09/091,771
• Time in Patent Office: 484 Days
• Field of Search: 359/407, 359/408, 359/409, 359/410, 359/411, 359/381, 359/480, 359/481, 250/214 VT
• US Class Current: 359/409
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 23/12 with means for image conversion or intensification
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 23/125 head-mounted

Abstract

A compact night observation viewer has one light amplifier and two eyepieces in the horizontal plane under the input aperture, and where one eyepiece can be folded out of the beam path so that a free through-view passage is opened through the viewer, whereby the observed scene can also be observed without light amplification. The invention solves thereby the problem of how in a technically and economically satisfactory way it is able to freely change between binocular and monocular vision. As an addition and optionally, the invention permits the distance between the two eyepieces to become adjustable and that a teleconverter can be applied in front of the light amplifier input and possibly also in above described free through-view opening so that magnification can be switched both with and without light amplification.

Claims

1. Binocular light-amplifying viewer which can be worn on the head, comprising a single light amplifier (2) with an input plane (3) and an output plane (6) for production of a bright image of a scene projected on the input plane, a lens (1) for projecting a scene existing in the direction of the line of sight (19) for the viewer towards the input plane (3), and an observation unit comprising a reflecting element, a beam divider (14), and two eyepieces (13A, 13B) adapted to allow viewing the image formed on the output plane of the light amplifier, wherein a mirror element (20) is arranged in order to reduce the forwardly directed construction length placed between the observed scene and the light amplifier, and optical axes of the eyepieces, when the light amplifying viewer is worn on the head, are situated in a horizontal plane which is separated from a horizontal plane in which a line of sight of the viewer is situated, wherein one of the two eyepieces (13A) and the reflecting element are mechanically releasable as a unit from a remainder of the viewer, so that instead an opening with a free through-view for the eye originally associated with said one of two eyepieces is provided, the viewer functioning monocularly with light amplification at a remaining eyepiece, and with the other eye.

2. Light-amplifying viewer according to claim 1, characterized in that the one eyepiece together with the reflecting element and a lens element between the beam divider (14) and the one eyepiece (13A) are laterally displaceable transversely as a unit, so that thereby the eyepiece distance between the optical axes of the two eyepieces (13A and 13B) is adjustable.

3. Light-amplifying viewer according to claim 1, characterized in that it has unity magnification so that the observer observes the scene in the natural scale.

4. Light-amplifying viewer according to claim 1, characterized in that a lens field of view of at least 45 degrees can be observed.

5. Light-amplifying viewer according to claim 1, further comprising a teleconverter which is moveable so as to be selectively positioned either in front of an input aperture of the light-amplifying viewer or in the opening with the free through-view created by the mechanical release of the one eyepiece and the reflecting unit, so that a degree of magnification of the viewer can be changed both with and without light amplification.