Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Rambus Inc.

Ricoh Corporation

Other

Ricaoh Corporation

David Geoffrey Stork

Patrick R Gill

Gregory J Wolff

M Dirk Robinson

Jamey Graham

Kathrin Berkner

Michael J Gormish

Michael F Angelo

James D Allen

K Venkatesh Prasad

John Eric Linstadt

Thomas Vogelsang

Peter E Hart

Junlan Yang

Ronald C Keesing

Sapna A Shroff

John F Cullen

Mark Peairs

Jay Endsley

Evan Lawrence Erickson

Chuck Lam

Mehjabin Sultana Monjur

Robert Jan Van Glabbeek

Earl Isaac Levine

Patrick R Johnstone

Takahiro Watanabe

James Edward Harris

Toshiyuki Furuta

Stephen R Savitzky

Ahmad Zandi

Jorge Moraleda

Alexander Caldwell Schneider

Noah Denis Bedard

Koichi Ejiri

John Ross Wallrabenstein

Mark D Kellam

Ivana Tosic

Jie Shen

Sri Rama Prasanna Pavani

Wanmin Wu

Marko Aleksic

Maya Rani Gupta

Shuji Motomura

Yoshio Kawajiri

Salman Kabir

James Tringali

Mohammed Shoaib

Luke A Pfister

Patrick Llull

Christopher J Clifton

Leonidas Spinoulas

Babak Hassibi

Nancy P Stork

Yeuyong Wang

Mohamed Nabeel

Image-sensing devices include odd-symmetry gratings that cast interference patterns over a photodetector array. Grating features offer considerable insensitivity to the wavelength of incident light, and to the manufactured distance between the grating and the photodetector array. Photographs and other image information can be extracted from interference patterns captured by the photodetector array. Images can be captured without a lens, and cameras can be made smaller than those that are reliant on lenses and ray-optical focusing.

Phase gratings with odd symmetry for high-resolution lensless optical sensing

An imaging system includes a phase grating overlying a two-dimensional array of pixels, which may be thermally sensitive pixels for use in infrared imaging. The phase grating comprises a two-dimensional array of identical subgratings that define a system of Cartesian coordinates. The subgrating and pixel arrays are sized and oriented such that the pixels are evenly distributed with respect to the row and column intersections of the subgratings. The location of each pixel thus maps to a unique location beneath a virtual archetypical subgrating. Portions of the phase grating extend beyond the edges of the pixels array to interference pattern in support of Fourier-domain imaging.

Systems and methods for improving resolution in lensless imaging

Image-sensing devices include odd-symmetry gratings that cast interference patterns over a photodetector array. Grating features offer considerable insensitivity to the wavelength of incident light, and also to the manufactured distance between the grating and the photodetector array. Photographs and other image information can be extracted from interference patterns captured by the photodetector array. Images can be captured without a lens, and cameras can be made smaller than those that are reliant on lenses and ray-optical focusing.

An array of diffraction-pattern generators employ phase anti-symmetric gratings to projects near-field spatial modulations onto a closely spaced array of photoelements. Each generator in the array of generators produces point-spread functions with spatial frequencies and orientations of interest. The generators are arranged in an irregular mosaic with little or no short-range repetition. Diverse generators are shaped and placed with some irregularity to reduce or eliminate spatially periodic replication of ambiguities to facilitate imaging of nearby scenes.

Optical sensing with tessellated diffraction-pattern generators

An optical method of measuring motion employs a phase grating that produces a diffraction pattern responsive to light from an imaged scene. First and second images of the diffraction pattern are captured and compared to produce an image comparison. Apparent motion is then calculated from the image comparison.

Optical motion sensing with phase gratings

A sensing device with an odd-symmetry grating projects near-field spatial modulations onto an array of closely spaced pixels. Due to physical properties of the grating, the spatial modulations are in focus for a range of wavelengths and spacings. The spatial modulations are captured by the array, and photographs and other image information can be extracted from the resultant data. Pixels responsive to infrared light can be used to make thermal imaging devices and other types of thermal sensors. Some sensors are well adapted for tracking eye movements, and others for imaging barcodes and like binary images. In the latter case, the known binary property of the expected images can be used to simplify the process of extracting image data.

Systems and methods for lensed and lensless optical sensing of binary scenes

An imaging system includes multiple diffractive optical gratings disposed over a two-dimensional array of photosensitive pixels. The different gratings present different patterns and features that are tailored to produce point-spread responses that emphasize different properties of an imaged scene. The different responses are captured by the pixels, and data captured from the responses can be used separately or together to analyze aspects of the scene. The imaging systems can include circuitry to analyze the image data, and to support modes that select between point-spread responses, selections of the pixels, and algorithms for analyzing image data.

Optical systems and methods supporting diverse optical and computational functions

An infrared imaging system includes a phase grating overlying a two-dimensional array of thermally sensitive pixels. The phase grating comprises a two-dimensional array of identical subgratings that define a system of Cartesian coordinates. The subgrating and pixel arrays are sized and oriented such that the pixels are evenly distributed with respect to the row and column intersections of the subgratings. The location of each pixel thus maps to a unique location beneath a virtual archetypical subgrating.

A user interface includes both a touchscreen for tactile input and one or more lensless optical sensors for sensing additional, remote gestures. Users can interact with the user interface in a volume of space near the display, and are thus not constrained to the relatively small area of the touchscreen. Remote hand or face gestures can be used to turn on or otherwise alter the tactile user interface. Shared user interfaces can operate without touch, and thus avoid cross-contamination of e.g. viruses and bacteria.

Touchless user interface for handheld and wearable computers

An optical phase grating produces an interference pattern rich in intensity and spatial-frequency information from the external scene. The grating includes an odd number of repeated sets of adjacent horizontal portions, separated by steps, that fill an area that radiates outward from a central region. At a given distance from the central region and within the area of the phase grating, each of the first horizontal portions is of a first width that differs from a second width of the adjacent second horizontal portions. The interference patterns produced by the grating can be processed to extract images and other information of interest about an imaged scene.

Systems and methods for lensed and lensless optical sensing

Optical flow sensing and pattern recognition with anti-symmetric phase gratings

Described are imaging systems that employ diffractive structures as focusing optics optimized to detect visual edges (e.g., slits or bars). The diffractive structures produce edge responses that are relatively insensitive to wavelength, and can thus be used to precisely measure edge position for panchromatic sources over a wide angle of view. Simple image processing can improve measurement precision. Field-angle measurements can be made without the aid of lenses, or the concomitant cost, bulk, and complexity.

Ultra-miniature wide-angle lensless CMOS visual edge localizer

A sensing device projects near-field spatial modulations onto a closely spaced photodetector array. Due to physical properties of the grating, the point-spread response distributes spatial modulations over a relatively large area on the array. The spatial modulations are captured by the array, and photographs and other image information can be extracted from the resultant data. An image-change detector incorporating such a sensing device uses very little power because only a small number of active pixels are required to cover a visual field.

Low-power image change detector

An infrared imaging system combines a low-resolution infrared camera with a high-resolution visible-light camera. Information extracted from images taken using the visible-light camera is combined with the low-resolution infrared images to produce an infrared image with enhanced spatial details. The process of extracting the information from the visible image adjusts the quantization level of the visible-light image to scale visible objects to match objects identified in the infrared image.

Systems and methods for enhanced infrared imaging

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Portola Valley, CA, United States of America

David Geoffrey Stork