Optical rangefinder for an electro-active lens

• US 7,656,509 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2007
• Issued: 02/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsui Chemicals Incorporated (Mitsui Chemicals)
• Original Assignee: Pixeloptics Incorporated
• Inventors: Blum, Ronald D., Duston, Dwight P., Kokonaski, William, Haddock, Joshua N., Richman, Scott N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza; Thomas H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ratcliffe; Luke D
• Application Number:
  US11/802,413
• Publication Number:
  US 20070280626A1
• Time in Patent Office: 987 Days
• Field of Search: 356/4.07
• US Class Current: 356/4.07
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/12 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/08 for measuring distance only indirect measurement G01S17/46; active triangulation systems G01S17/48
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/88 Lidar systems specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 7/32 using active means, e.g. light emitter including both an active and a passive focus detecting device G02B7/285; using ultrasound G02B7/40
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 7/36 using image sharpness techniques , e.g. image processing techniques for generating autofocus signals image data processing per se G06T; in cameras having a solid state image sensor H04N23/67

Abstract

Several devices for determining a distance of an object a user of an electro-active lens is looking at are presented. Once the distance is determined, the devices may alter the optical power of the electro-active lens to ensure that the object is correctly focused. Optical range finding is a possible means for carrying out this task. An active rangefinder may emit optical radiation from a transmitter directed at the object. The optical radiation may then be reflected off the object. The reflected optical radiation may then be received with an appropriate receiver. The received optical radiation may then be processed by appropriate circuitry to determine a distance to the object. A passive rangefinder works without a transmitter. Instead, an appropriate receiver receives ambient sources of light from the object. The received light may then be processed by appropriate circuitry to determine a distance to the object.

Claims

1. A rangefinder operably coupled to an electro-active lens, the rangefinder comprising:

a plurality of image sensor arrays where each of said image sensor arrays is covered by a focusing element having a fixed focal length to provide a desired focus at a different focal distance by measuring contrast of a focused sensed image received by the image sensor array; and

a controller connected to each of the plurality of image sensor arrays where the controller is used to measure the contrast of each of the image sensor arrays and electrical signals produced by adjacent pixels of each of the image sensor arrays are used by the controller to calculate contrast using a threshold sum of absolute differences algorithm to determine an appropriate optical power of the electro-active lens based on the measured contrast.

2. The rangefinder of claim 1 where the electroactive lens comprises a progressive addition lens.

3. The rangefinder of claim 1 where the optical power determined by the controller is applied to the electro-active lens such that the sensed image resulting from an object is correctly focused.

4. The rangefinder of claim 1 where the optical power determined by the controller to correctly focus the sensed image from an object corresponds to the measured contrast of an image sensor array that is statistically better than the measured contrast of another image sensor array sensing the same object.

5. The rangefinder of claim 1 where each of said image sensor arrays comprises CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) photodiodes tied together via a lateral resistive layer and electrically connected to amplifiers.

6. The rangefinder of claim 1 where each of said image sensor arrays comprises CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensors with a Digital Signal Processor (DSP).

7. The rangefinder of claim 1 where each of said image sensor arrays comprises CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) photodiodes connected in pair wise arrangement via differential amplifiers.

8. The rangefinder of claim 1 where each of said image sensor arrays comprises CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) photodiodes connected in pair wise arrangement via multiplexing bus feeding differential amplifiers.

9. The rangefinder of claim 1 where a photochromic dye is incorporated in or on the focusing elements to act as a passive optical intensity filter.

10. The rangefinder of claim 9 where the focusing elements are refractive lenses.

11. The rangefinder of claim 10 where the focusing elements are designed to focus light having a wavelength of about 550 nm.

12. The rangefinder of claim 9 where the focusing elements are diffractive lenses.

13. The rangefinder of claim 12 where the focusing elements are designed to focus light having a wavelength of about 550 nm.

14. The rangefinder of claim 9 where the focusing elements are lenslet arrays comprising either refractive or diffractive lens elements.

15. The rangefinder of claim 14 where the focusing elements are designed to focus light having a wavelength of about 550 nm.