Dual-field-of-view optical system

• US 9,762,812 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2015
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Belote, Brent, Robarge, James, Noethen, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Haskins, Twyler
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHIU, WESLEY JASON
• Application Number:
  US14/927,756
• Publication Number:
  US 20170126986A1
• Time in Patent Office: 683 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/1066 for enhancing image performance, like resolution, pixel numbers, dual magnifications or dynamic range, by tiling, slicing or overlapping fields of view
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/005 Diaphragms for cameras G03B9/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/55 Optical parts specially adapted for electronic image sensors; Mounting thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/58 Means for changing the camera field of view without moving the camera body, e.g. nutating or panning of optics or image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/69 Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/73 by influencing the exposure time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/265 Mixing

Abstract

A dual-field-of-view (FOV) optical imaging system having a primary FOV and a simultaneously viewable secondary FOV. One example of the system includes an imaging sensor, primary and secondary FOV objective optics configured to receive and output electromagnetic radiation corresponding to the primary FOV and secondary FOV, respectively, imager optics, and a field-of-view selection mechanism disposed between the secondary FOV objective optics and the imager optics and configured to selectively pass the second FOV to the imager optics, the imaging sensor being configured to produce primary FOV image frames and combined image frames that include imagery from both the primary and secondary fields-of-view.

Claims

1. A dual-field-of-view optical imaging system having a narrow field-of-view and a wide field-of-view and comprising:

a detector assembly including an imaging sensor;

narrow field-of-view objective optics configured to receive first electromagnetic radiation from a scene and to output the first electromagnetic radiation corresponding to the narrow field-of-view of the system;

wide field-of-view objective optics configured to receive second electromagnetic radiation from the scene and to output the second electromagnetic radiation corresponding to the wide field-of-view of the system;

imager optics configured to receive and focus the first electromagnetic radiation onto the imaging sensor, the imaging sensor being configured to produce narrow field-of-view image frames from the first electromagnetic radiation;

a field-of-view selection mechanism disposed between the wide field-of-view objective optics and the imager optics and configured to selectively pass the second electromagnetic radiation to the imager optics, the imager optics being further configured to focus the second electromagnetic radiation onto the imaging sensor, and the imaging sensor being further configured to produce combined image frames from the first electromagnetic radiation and the second electromagnetic radiation together, the combined image frames including imagery from both the narrow and wide fields-of-view; and

image processing circuitry coupled to the imaging sensor and configured to receive and process the narrow field-of-view image frames and the combined image frames from the imaging sensor, the image processing circuitry including an image reconstruction module configured, for each combined image frame, to;

receive the combined image frame;

receive a prior stored narrow field-of-view image frame;

compare the combined image frame with the prior stored narrow field-of-view image frame to determine a content delta between the combined image frame and the prior stored narrow field-of-view image frame; and

remove the imagery from the narrow field-of-view from the combined image frame based on the content delta to produce a wide field-of-view image frame.

2. The dual-field-of-view optical imaging system of claim 1 wherein the field-of-view selection mechanism includes a shutter at least a portion of which is selectively movable into an optical path between the wide field-of-view objective optics and the imager optics to block the second electromagnetic radiation from the imager optics, and selectively movable out of the optical path to pass the second electromagnetic radiation to the imager optics.

3. The dual-field-of-view optical imaging system of claim 2 wherein the field-of-view selection mechanism includes a rotating shutter wheel having a transmissive portion that passes the second electromagnetic radiation and a blocking portion that blocks the second electromagnetic radiation.

4. The dual-field-of-view optical imaging system of claim 1 wherein the field-of-view selection mechanism includes:

a beamsplitter disposed between the imager optics and both the narrow and wide field-of-view objective optics; and

a shutter positioned between the wide field-of-view objective optics and the beamsplitter, the shutter having an open state in which the second electromagnetic radiation is directed to the beamsplitter and a closed state in which the second electromagnetic radiation is blocked from reaching the beamsplitter.

5. The dual-field-of-view optical imaging system of claim 4 wherein, when the shutter is in the closed state, the beamsplitter is configured to transmit a first portion of the first electromagnetic radiation to the imager optics and to reflect a second portion of the first electromagnetic radiation;

and

wherein, when the shutter is in the open state, the beamsplitter is configured to receive and combine the first and second electromagnetic radiation, to transmit the first portion of the first electromagnetic radiation to the imager optics and to reflect the second portion of the first electromagnetic radiation, and to transmit a first portion of the second electromagnetic radiation to the imager optics and reflect a second portion of the second electromagnetic radiation with the second portion of the first electromagnetic radiation.

6. The dual-field-of-view optical imaging system of claim 1, wherein the image processing circuitry is further configured to output first display images produced from the narrow field-of-view image frames and corresponding to the narrow field-of-view, and second display images produced from a combination of the narrow field-of-view image frames and the combined image frames and corresponding to the wide field-of-view.

7. The dual-field-of-view optical imaging system of claim 6 wherein the imaging processing circuitry includes a frame buffer configured to store the narrow field-of-view image frames sequentially one-by-one, and wherein the image reconstruction module is configured to receive the prior stored narrow field-of-view image frame from the frame buffer.

8. The dual-field-of-view optical imaging system of claim 7 wherein the image processing circuitry is configured to process the wide field-of-view image frames to produce the second display images.

9. A method of simultaneously viewing two fields-of-view in an optical imaging system, the method comprising:

collecting, over a narrow field-of-view, first electromagnetic radiation energy at an imaging sensor and producing therefrom a plurality of narrow field-of-view image frames;

simultaneously collecting, over a wide field-of-view, second electromagnetic radiation energy using wide objective optics;

selectively directing the second electromagnetic radiation energy to the imaging sensor;

at the imaging sensor, producing a plurality of combined image frames from a combination of the first electromagnetic radiation energy and the second electromagnetic radiation energy;

processing the plurality of narrow field-of-view image frames and the plurality of combined image frames to produce a first display image stream corresponding to the narrow field-of-view and to produce a plurality of wide field-of-view image frames for a second display image stream corresponding to the wide field-of-view, wherein producing the plurality of wide field-of-view image frames includes;

receiving the combined image frame at an image reconstruction module;

receiving a prior stored narrow field-of-view image frame at the image reconstruction module; and

with the image reconstruction module, comparing the combined image frame and the prior stored narrow field-of-view image frame to determine a content delta between the combined image frame and the prior stored narrow field-of-view image frame; and

removing imagery in the prior stored narrow field-of-view image frame from imagery in the combined image frame to produce the wide field-of-view image frame; and

displaying the first and second display image streams.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein selectively directing the second electromagnetic radiation to the imaging sensor includes selectively moving a shutter into an optical path between the wide objective optics and the imaging sensor to block the second electromagnetic radiation energy from reaching the imaging sensor, and selectively moving the shutter out of the optical path to allow the second electromagnetic radiation energy to reach the imaging sensor.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein processing the plurality of narrow field-of-view image frames and the plurality of combined image frames includes sequentially storing each one of the plurality of narrow field-of-view image frames in a frame buffer, and wherein receiving the prior stored narrow field-of-view image frame includes receiving the prior stored narrow field-of-view image frame from the frame buffer.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein producing the second display image stream includes processing the plurality of wide field-of-view image frames.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising dynamically adjusting a saturation threshold of the imaging sensor.