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Multi-functional day/night observation, ranging, and sighting device with active optical target acquisition and method of its operation

  • US 5,973,315 A
  • Filed: 02/18/1998
  • Issued: 10/26/1999
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/18/1998
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A viewing device having an objective lens receiving light from a distant scene, an image intensifier tube receiving the light and responsively providing a visible image, and an eyepiece lens presenting the visible image to a user of the device;

  • a laser projecting pulses of laser light into the scene, and circuit means for gating operation of the image tube in time-delayed synchronization with the pulses of laser light to provide an image of a retro-reflective object in the scene;

    the circuit means including means for gating the image tube at a rate sufficiently high to provide an image of the scene which is substantially free of flicker, and for operating the laser at an effective pulse repetition rate sufficiently slow that the retro-reflective object in the scene does flicker;

    whereby the retro-reflective object appears as a blinking source of illumination in the scene.

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