METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PRODUCING IMAGE FRAMES USING QUANTUM PROPERTIES

• US 20120327287A1
• Filed: 08/14/2012
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The United States of America As Represented By The Secretary of Agriculture
• Original Assignee: United States Secretary of the Army
• Inventors: MEYERS, RONALD E., DEACON, KEITH S., TUNICK, ARNOLD
• Granted Patent: US 8,811,763 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/335
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/24 for measuring contours or curvatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/30 Transforming light or analogous information into electric information scanning details H04N3/00; cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors, or control thereof H04N23/00; circuitry of solid-state image sensors [SSIS] or control thereof H04N25/00

Abstract

A system and method for generating a series of frames of a subject comprising measuring light reflected from the subject into at least one first receiver at first points in time; receiving spatial information relating to the light source illumination independent of interaction with the subject at second points in time into at least one second receiver, at least some of second points occurring before or after the first points in time; transmitting a measured value from the at least one first receiver to a processor; transmitting the spatial information relating to the light source illumination from a second receiver to a processor; correlating the measured values from the at least one first receiver at the first points in time with the spatial information derived from the at least one second receiver at the corresponding second points in time; and creating frames of a subject.

Claims

1. A method for generating a series of frames of a video or movie of a subject illuminated by a light source which may be an incoherent, partially coherent, chaotic or entangled light source comprising:

receiving light reflected from the subject into at least one first receiver at first predetermined points in time;

receiving light from the light source into at least one second receiver that detects spatial information relating to the light source illumination independent of interaction with the subject at second points in time, at least some of the second points in time occurring before or after the first points in time;

the at least one first receiver and the at least one second receiver being operatively connected to at least one processor,

transmitting a measured value correlating to the amount of light reflected from the subject from at least one first receiver to at least one processor;

transmitting the spatial information relating to the light source illumination from at least one second receiver to at least one processor;

correlating the measured values from the at least one first receiver at the first points in time with the spatial information derived from the at least one second receiver at the corresponding second points in time;

creating a series of frames for a video of a subject by correlating measured values of light reflected from the subject with spatial information received from the illuminating source at differing instances in time.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the second points in time occur before or after the first points in time within predetermined time intervals in a range from approximately one femtosecond to approximately one or more seconds after the first points in time.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one second receiver is remotely located from the at least one first receiver and wherein the at least one second receiver receives light reflected by the subject.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of receiving light from the light source comprises receiving a first plurality of photons emitted from a light source and reflected from the subject into a first receiver at a first location to produce a first receiver signal;

and wherein the step of receiving light from the light source into a second receiver comprises receiving a second plurality of photons emitted from the light source to produce a spatially resolved signal using a spatially addressable receiver at a second location, the second plurality of photons reaching the spatially addressable receiver independent of interaction with the subject; and

wherein the correlating of the first receiver signal with spatially resolved signal comprises using the equation;

G⁽²⁾( ρ

₁, ρ

₂,t₁,t₂)=G₁₁⁽¹⁾( ρ

₁, ρ

₁,t₁,t₂)G₂₂⁽¹⁾( ρ

₂, ρ

₂,t₁,t₂)+G₁₂⁽¹⁾( ρ

₁, ρ

₂,t₁,t₂)G₂₁⁽¹⁾( ρ

₂, ρ

₁,t₂,t₁)

where G₁₁⁽¹⁾ G₂₂⁽¹⁾ is approximately equal to G₀ and G₀ is a constant, and G₁₂⁽¹⁾ G₂₁⁽¹⁾ is approximately equal to δ

( ρ

₁−

ρ

₂) when t₁ and t₂ are within the coherence time of the system and δ

( ρ

₁−

ρ

₂) represents the δ

-function non-local position-position, correlation; and

ρ

₁ and ρ

₂ are the transverse spatial coordinates of the first and second detectors respectively and t₁, t₂ are the temporal coordinates of the first and second receivers.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the light received by the at least once first receiver comprises stimulated fluorescence light and the light received by the at least one second receiver comprises light stimulating the stimulated fluorescence light.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one first receiver comprises a plurality of spatially integrated detectors which receive angularly distinct reflections from the vicinity of but absent reflections from the subject illuminated by the light source.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the measured values from the at least one first receiver and the spatial information from the at least one second receiver are partitioned into a set of sequential groups at a fixed advanced or delayed time intervals, each sequential group then being processed in order to generate an image of the subject that is stored as a single frame of a video or movie of the subject.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the measured values from the at least one first receiver and the spatial information from the at least one second receiver are processed in a sequence of time delays, each time delay then being processed to generate an image of the subject that is stored as a single frame of a video or movie of the subject;

and wherein certain of the frames in a sequence of time delays being operative to produce an image of a subject in a different apparent position.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein a line of pixels is extracted from each frame of the video or movie and stored in an array;

each line of extracted line of pixels is stored in the array indexed by the frame number that the extracted line of pixels was extracted from; and

wherein a composite image is generated that exhibits interference fringe patterns;

the interference fringe patterns being further processed to reveal more detailed height information about the target object.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the obscuring medium is fog, an aerosol, particulates, turbulence, liquid, or frosted glass and the distortion caused by the obscuring medium is corrected through corrective optics.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the light reflected from the subject comprises a first plurality of photons and the light the that illuminates the second receiver comprises a second plurality of photons and further comprising directing at least one of the first plurality of photons or the second plurality of photons through a monochromator prior to the displaying the correlated image.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one first receiver comprises a spatially integrated detector and the at least one second receiver comprises a spatially addressable detector and wherein both of the spatially integrated detector and the second spatially addressable detector are the charged coupled devices, and wherein the spatially integrated detector further comprises means for modifying sensitivity of specific pixels on the spatially integrated detector prior to producing the at least one first receiver measured signal.

13. A system for creating images of a subject illuminated by a incoherent, partially coherent, chaotic or entangled light source comprising:

at least one processor for processing information;

at least one first receiver for receiving light influenced by the subject operatively connected to the processor;

the at least one first receiver transmitting to the at least one processor measured values devoid of spatial information at first predetermined time intervals;

at least one second receiver adapted to receive light from an incoherent, partially coherent, chaotic or entangled light source, the at least one second receiver being operatively connected to the processor;

the at least one second receiver operating to receive and transmit spatial information regarding the light source at second time intervals, at least some of the second time intervals occurring before or after the first time intervals;

the spatial information regarding the light source being devoid of information concerning the subject;

the at least one processor operating to correlate the measured values from the at least one first receiver at the predetermined intervals of time with the spatial information derived from the at least one second receiver to create images of the subject.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the images of the subject are a series of frames which form a motion picture or video.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein a line of pixels is extracted from each frame of the motion picture or video and stored in an array indexed b the frame number, to be further processed to extract detailed surface height information of the subject.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the at least one first receiver comprises a plurality of first receivers operative to detect the influence of a subject on the beam;

the plurality of first receivers being operatively connected to the processor and operating to transmit nonspatial information to the processor;

the plurality of first receivers being spaced at known, different distances from the subject, whereby comparison of each of the outputs of the plurality of first receivers provides three dimensional information concerning the subject;

the processor operating to correlate the outputs of the plurality of first receivers.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the at least one second receiver comprises an array of pixel locations for detecting high resolution spatial information concerning the illumination and operating to transmit high resolution spatial information correlated to specific intervals of time to the processor;

the at one first receiver operating to transmit low resolution spatial information to the processor correlated to specific intervals of time;

the processor operating to correlate a response by the at least one receiver with spatial information derived from the spatial receiver at a correlating intervals of time to create a high resolution image of the subject.

18. A system for creating images of a subject illuminated by a incoherent, partially coherent, chaotic or entangled light source comprising:

at least one processor for processing information;

at least one first receiver for receiving light reflected from the vicinity of but absent reflections directly from the subject without spatial information;

the at least one first receiver transmitting to the at least one processor measured values devoid of spatial information at first predetermined time intervals;

at least one second receiver adapted to receive light from an incoherent, partially coherent, chaotic or entangled light source, the at least one second receiver being operatively connected to the processor;

the at least one second receiver operating to receive and transmit spatial information regarding the light source at second time intervals, at least some of the second time intervals being advanced before or delayed after the first time intervals;

the spatial information regarding the light source being devoid of information concerning the subject;

the at least one processor operating to correlate the measured values from the at least one first receiver with the spatial information derived from, the at least one second receiver to create images of the subject.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the at least one first receiver collects only the amount of light reflected from the vicinity of but absent reflections from subject and does not record information concerning the internal features, outline or dimensions of the vicinity of the subject.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the at least one second receiver collects spatial information from the light source which is transmitted to the at least one processor and wherein the at least one processor creates the internal features, outline or dimensions of the subject based only on the spatial information of the light source and the amount of light measured by the at least one first receiver during corresponding advanced or delayed time interval.