METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING AND USING CAMERA DEVICES

• US 20160182777A1
• Filed: 12/21/2015
• Published: 06/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blue River Technology Inc. (Deere & Company)
• Original Assignee: The LightCo Inc.
• Inventors: SHROFF, Sapna A., LAROIA, Rajiv
• Granted Patent: US 9,998,638 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/45 for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/51 Housings
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/54 Mounting of pick-up tubes, electronic image sensors, deviation or focusing coils
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/57 Mechanical or electrical details of cameras or camera modules specially adapted for being embedded in other devices
• 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 5/265 Mixing

Abstract

A camera device with a sensor which is mounted at an angle relative to a mounting surface or other reference surface is described. Camera modules, which include mirrors for light redirection, which are mounted at different angles in the camera device have sensors with different amounts of rotation. In some embodiments modules without mirrors use camera modules without rotated sensors while camera modules with mirrors may or may not use sensors which are rotated depending on the angle at which the modules are mounted in the camera device. By rotating the sensors of some camera modules rotation that maybe introduced by the angle at which a camera module is mounted can be offset. The images captured by different camera modules are combined in some embodiments without the need for computationally rotating an image thanks to the rotation of the sensor in the camera module used to capture the image.

Claims

1. A camera device, comprising:

a first optical chain including a first sensor with a first rectangular image sensing area including a first edge, the first sensor being at least i) mounted on a first printed circuit board with the first edge being rotated at a first angle relative to a first edge of the first printed circuit board or ii) mounted in a first camera module housing with the first edge being rotated at an angle relative to a flat mounting surface of a first camera module housing.

2. The camera device of claim 1, wherein said first sensor is mounted in the camera housing and wherein said first edge is a straight edge of the first sensor which is mounted at a non-zero angle relative to the flat mounting surface of said housing.

3. The camera device of claim 2, wherein said flat mounting surface of said housing is a top or bottom surface of said first optical chain, said mounting surface being secured to a camera module mounting board in said camera on which at least one other camera module is mounted.

4. The camera device of claim 2, wherein said flat mounting surface is mounted in a camera case with the flat mounting surface being secured to a mounting board which extends in a camera case in a plane that is parallel or generally parallel to the back of the camera case.

5. The camera device of claim 4, wherein said first sensor is mounted on the printed circuit board.

6. The camera device of claim 1, wherein said camera device is said first optical chain.

7. The camera device of claim 1, wherein the first optical chain further includes a first mirror.

8. The camera device of claim 1, wherein said first angle is a non-zero angle less than 90 degrees.

9. The camera device of claim 1, further comprising:

an additional optical chain which does not include a additional mirror, said additional optical chain including an additional rectangular sensor with a bottom portion of said additional rectangular sensor extending parallel to the bottom of said camera case.

10. The camera device of claim 9,

wherein the additional optical chain faces straight out through the face of the camera device and wherein the sensor of the additional optical chain is mounted perpendicular to the sensor of the first optical chain.

11. The camera device of claim 1, further comprising:

a second optical chain including a second sensor with a second rectangular image sensing area rotated at a second angle with respect to the bottom of a second printed circuit board on which the second sensor is mounted, said second angle being different from a first angle at which the first sensor is mounted with respect to said first edge, said first edge being a bottom edge of the first printed circuit board.

12. The camera device of claim 1, further comprising:

a camera case including a bottom;

wherein said first optical chain includes a mirror and has an optical axis a portion of which is at a non-zero angle relative to the bottom of the camera case; and

wherein the camera device further includes a second optical chain which does not include a mirror and which has a second sensor with a bottom edge mounted parallel to the bottom of the camera case.

13. The camera device of claim 12, further comprising:

a processor configured to generate a composite image by combining a first image of a scene area captured by the first optical chain and a second image of the scene area captured by the second optical chain without performing an image rotation operation on either the first or second images.

14. A method of operating a camera device, method comprising:

operate a first camera module including a first mirror and a first sensor mounted at a first angle relative to a bottom of a first printed circuit board on which the first sensor is mounted to capture an image of a scene area;

operate a second camera module including a second mirror and a sensor mounted at a second angle relative to a bottom of a second printed circuit board on which the second sensor is mounted to capture a second image of the scene area, said second angle being different from said first angle; and

operating a processor to combine said first and second images to generate a composite image of said scene area without performing a computational rotation operation on either of said first and second images.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising

operate a third camera module which does not include a mirror to capture a third image of the scene area;

and

wherein operating a processor to combine said first and second images to generate a composite image of said scene area further includes combining said first and second images with said third image with without performing a computational rotation operation on any of said first, second and third images.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said first angle is a non-zero angle less than 90 degrees.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said second angel is a non-zero angle less than 90 degrees.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said first and second camera modules are mounted at an angle relative to the bottom of said camera device and wherein said third camera module is mounted so that the bottom of the third sensor extends left to right in said camera device parallel to the bottom of the camera device.