초록 ▼

A compact momentum-balanced internal optical scanning mechanism is provided for a wide angle camera used in photo reconnaissance and the like, in which a large high resolution but not fully populated array is used to provide full scene coverage with high pixel densities, in which sharpness is mainta

A compact momentum-balanced internal optical scanning mechanism is provided for a wide angle camera used in photo reconnaissance and the like, in which a large high resolution but not fully populated array is used to provide full scene coverage with high pixel densities, in which sharpness is maintained and in which the image can be scanned without vibration due to momentum compensation so that the image may be shifted on the focal plane array in such a manner that images focused on a dark portion of the array will move to an active portion of the array, with the sequential read out of the information concatenated into high resolution full scene image data.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A method for compensating for unpopulated regions in a mosaiced focal plane array utilized with a wide field of view single camera non-tilting optical sensor that has its direction fixed when viewing a scene for surveilling a large area, comprising the steps of: providing a first lens for the sin

1. A method for compensating for unpopulated regions in a mosaiced focal plane array utilized with a wide field of view single camera non-tilting optical sensor that has its direction fixed when viewing a scene for surveilling a large area, comprising the steps of: providing a first lens for the single camera non-tilting optical sensor centered on the optical axis of the optical sensor ahead of the focal plane array;providing a second lens adjacent the first lens;cyclically decentering the lenses of the single camera non-tilting optical sensor orthogonally to the optical axis so as to shift the image captured by the optical sensor on the focal plane array such that image information which falls on unpopulated portions of the focal plane array is shifted to an active region of the focal plane array, the decentering including decentering the first lens in one direction and the second lens in an opposite direction, the lenses being configured so as to effectuate momentum-balancing;storing the information from the focal plane array so as to capture information related to the pixels which fall on a populated array area; and,reconstructing the image from the stored data through concatenation such that the reconstructed image has no gaps. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein both of said lenses are positive lenses. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein both of said lenses are negative lenses. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the lenses is a positive lens and the other of the lenses is a negative lens. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the focusing power of each of said lenses is approximately equal and opposite for a near neutral magnification. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the optical sensor has a center of gravity, wherein each of said lenses is mounted to a mount and wherein said lenses and mounts have masses, moments of inertia and positions relative to the sensor center of gravity to establish the momentum-balancing. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the lenses is decentered about the optical axis of the sensor such that no net torque is imparted to the sensor during decentering. 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the mosaiced focal plane array includes a pattern of small plane focal arrays, the pattern establishing populated areas and non-populated areas, with the non-populated areas existing between adjacent ones of the small focal plane arrays. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the mosaiced focal plane array has a pixel count exceeding half a billion pixels. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the optical sensor has a wide angle lens and wherein the mosaiced focal plane array has a size equal to or greater than that of the wide angle lens corrected image plane area. 11. A system for scanning an image across a large mosaiced focal plane array carried by a single camera non-tilting optical sensor having a wide angle lens and a centerline, said mosaiced focal plane array made up of a pattern of small focal plane arrays having gaps therebetween that establish unpopulated areas, comprising: a decenterable first lens decenterable in a direction orthogonal to the optical centerline of said optical sensor between said wide angle lens and said focal plane array;a second decenterable lens adjacent said first decenterable lens and decenterable in said orthogonal direction;a drive for cyclically decentering said first and second decenterable lenses in opposite directions for momentum-balancing;a storage unit coupled to the outputs of said small focal plane array for storing the outputs therefrom; and,a module for reconstructing an image from the stored data from said storage unit such that image information lost through images focused onto an unpopulated area of said mosaiced focal plane array is reconstructed from image data from the same images shifted away from said unpopulated area due to the decentering of said lens. 12. The system of claim 11, wherein said mosaiced focal plane array includes a pattern of smaller focal plane arrays spaced one from the other, the spacing resulting in said unpopulated focal plane array areas. 13. The system of claim 12, wherein said decenterable lens is toggled between two decentering positions such that any image that is focused on an unpopulated region will subsequently be focused on an active region of said mosaiced focal plane array. 14. The system of claim 13, wherein each of said lenses is carried in a frame and wherein the masses, moments of inertia and positions relative to the sensor center of gravity are set such that upon decentering in opposite directions the associated accelerations exert no net torque on said optical sensor. 15. The system of claim 11, wherein said lens decentering displaces the field of view of said optical sensor by a discrete amount in at least a first field of regard direction. 16. The system of claim 15, wherein said decenterable lenses are decentered in a direction orthogonal to said first field of regard direction so as to accommodate a second field of regard direction. 17. The system of claim 13, wherein one of said decenterable lenses is a positive lens and the other of said decenterable lenses is a negative lens. 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the power of said positive lens is equal to and of opposite power relative to said negative lens, thereby to establish a near net zero magnification.