Method of creating a virtual window

• US 8,896,662 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Blackhawk Imaging LLC
• Original Assignee: Scallop Imaging, LLC
• Inventors: Jones, Peter W. J.
• Primary Examiner(s): AN, SHAWN S
• Application Number:
  US13/619,388
• Publication Number:
  US 20130215217A1
• Time in Patent Office: 802 Days
• Field of Search: 348/36, 348/39, 348/38, 348/48, 348/43, 382/194, 382/199, 382/154
• US Class Current: 348/36
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 11/00 Defence installations; Defence devices constructional aspects see Section E, e.g. air-raid shelters E04H9/04; protective arrangements for buildings E04B1/92; extinguishing or preventing the spread of fire from, incendiary bombs A62C3/06; dynamic armour F41H5/007; ballistically deployed systems for restraining persons or animals F41H13/0006; electronic countermeasures G01S
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 13/00 Means of attack or defence not otherwise provided for details of radar or sonar systems G01S7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1601 Constructional details related to the housing of computer displays, e.g. of CRT monitors, of flat displays constructional details related to flat displays integrated in a portable computer, e.g. laptop, handheld computer G06F1/1637; constructional details related to television receivers H04N5/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/002 for television cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/004 for digital television systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2628 Alteration of picture size, shape, position or orientation, e.g. zooming, rotation, rolling, perspective, translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49002 Electrical device making

Abstract

The systems and methods described herein include, among other things, a technique for calibrating the outputs of multiple sensors, such as CCD devices, that have overlapping fields of view and mapping the pixels of those outputs to the pixels of a display screen by means of a lookup table so that a user can see a selected field of view within the larger fields of view that are seen by the sensors.

Claims

1. A method for calibrating a panoramic image sensor, the method comprising:

presenting a pattern to a plurality of imaging sensors, each of the imaging sensors having a plurality of pixels and being disposed on a sensor body, wherein the imaging sensors have partially overlapping fields of view;

capturing an image of the pattern appearing in the fields of view of the imaging sensors;

processing the captured images to identify overlapping portions of the pattern that correspond to overlapping regions within the overlapping fields of view of the imaging sensors; and

processing the overlapping portions of the pattern to generate a lookup table comprising information that indicates at a certain time which pixels of which sensors sense a common portion of the pattern.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the pattern is a hemispherical pattern.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the pattern is a grid pattern.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein presenting the pattern comprises tracing the pattern across a surface with a light source.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the lookup table comprises information indicating which pixels of which imaging sensors respond to the light source at a defined point in the pattern.