Pitch and roll motion optical system for wide angle display

• US 4,390,253 A
• Filed: 07/14/1981
• Issued: 06/28/1983
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/1981
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Redifon Simulation Limited
• Original Assignee: Redifon Simulation Limited
• Inventors: Lobb, Daniel R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Henry, Jon W.
• Application Number:
  US06/283,141
• Time in Patent Office: 714 Days
• Field of Search: 350/505, 350/504, 350/294, 353/12, 353/13, 353/99, 434/38, 434/40, 434/44
• US Class Current: 359/366
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 13/06 Panoramic objectives; So-called "sky lenses" including panoramic objectives having reflecting surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 17/045 having static image erecting or reversing properties only optical derotators G02B27/642; optical devices for controlling the direction of light using movable or deformable optical elements G02B26/08
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 17/0812 off-axis or unobscured systems in which all of the mirrors share a common axis of rotational symmetry
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/326 the image being transformed by optical means

Abstract

A roll and pitch motion optical system, particularly for a ground-based flight simulator visual display using a raster-scanned laser optical projector and a concave part-spherical display screen and requiring a wide-angle display. The optical system uses an input concave paraboloidal mirror and an output convex paraboloidal mirror of complementary shape. The intermediate optics comprise a collimator to constrict the display beam envelope, roll and pitch prisms positioned in the constricted area and close to the output mirror and a concave spherical mirror to reflect beams from the pitch prism back onto the output paraboloidal mirror.

Claims

1. Optical apparatus for receiving radiation from at wide-angle input field, and transmitting the radiation into a wide-angle output field, said transmission being such that the output field is an image of the input field formed substantially at unit magnification, and for providing rotation at the output field with respect to the input field, said optical apparatus comprising a concave axially-symmetric aspheric mirror and a convex axially-symmetric aspheric mirror having complementary reflecting surface shapes, approximately paraboloids, at the foci of which the entrance and exit pupils of the system are located, and an optical system in the radiation path between the two mirrors comprising reflecting prisms and two imaging systems of equal focal length and complementary distortion located such that their inner focal surfaces coincide at an intermediate pupil image and their outer focal surfaces are respectively near the two aspheric mirrors such that the surfaces of the two aspheric mirrors are imaged one onto the other at substantially unit magnification and without distortion, the optical axes of the two aspheric mirrors and of all elements of the two imaging systems being imaged onto a common line by reflection in the reflecting prisms, the reflecting prisms being rotatable provide deflection of reflected radiation and of the optical axes of elements in the path of reflected radiation, so that radiation received from an input field at a first of the two aspheric mirrors is transmitted to the second of the two aspheric mirrors and reflected from it into an output field formed substantially at unit magnification and so that the output field is rotatable with respect to the input field.

2. Optical apparatus as claimed in claim 1, in which the rotatable reflecting prisms are positioned in the region of the said intermediate pupil image.

3. Optical apparatus as claimed in claim 2, in which one of the said two imaging systems is positioned between the convex aspheric mirror and the rotatable reflecting prisms and comprises a second concave mirror.

4. Optical apparatus as claimed in claim 3, in which two of the said rotatable reflecting prisms each deflect radiation through 90°

and rotate on axes which are coincident with their respective incident radiation directions and in which all following elements of the apparatus are rotated with the reflected radiation on the same axes.

5. Optical apparatus as claimed in claim 4, comprising a third rotatable prism, operative as an image rotating prism for rotating the transmitted radiation on the local optical axis.