Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.

Jeff Applegate

Carl S Weimer

Sara C Tucker

Lyle Ruppert

Jason Micali

Tanya M Ramond

Carl M Adkins

Thomas P Delker

An interferometer is provided. The interferometer includes a multifaceted beamsplitter. Angles of incidence between beams entering the beamsplitter and a beamsplitting surface of the beamsplitter are less than 45 degrees. The arms of the interferometer feature a refractive compensator or a catseye optical configuration to provide an optical path length difference for rays that is the same at any location along the effective aperture of the interferometer. A detector assembly can be included with at least four detectors that lie in a plane and that receive light along paths that are orthogonal to that plane.

Compact quadrature mach-zehnder interferometer

Methods and systems for adaptively controlling the illumination of a scene are provided. In particular, a scene is illuminated, and light reflected from the scene is detected. Information regarding levels of light intensity received by different pixels of a multiple pixel detector, corresponding to different areas within a scene, and/or information regarding a range to an area within a scene, is received. That information is then used as a feedback signal to control levels of illumination within the scene. More particularly, different areas of the scene can be provided with different levels of illumination in response to the feedback signal.

Electronically steered flash LIDAR

Growing community of inventors

Superior, CO, United States of America

Jeff Applegate