Arete Associates

Tony Pittner

David M Kane

Andrew E Paul

Philip A Selwyn

Kelly Hillman

Christopher Hornberg

John Hunt

Paul Eason

Tom Reilly

Simultaneous movies of plural portions of a scene are acquired and shown, using one imager with electrooptical directing device to acquire, stepwise, an interleaved (e. g. alternating) sequence of subscene images. Apparatus is ideally in a vehicle: airborne or unmanned, or both. The invention records and transmits (via one data link, with no needed parallel path) the sequence as one image series; best sorts the received sequence into noninterleaved sequences, a separate sequence for each subscene; and shows these as movies. Alternatively, scene portions form a mosaic. Including gyro operation and pointing, the device best gets a new image roughly each 5 to 40 msec or less; or excluding gyros and pointing, 5 to 40 msec by FSM, 1 to 5 by MEMS, 1 to 5 (or 10) by LC, 1 by 2-axis nongimbal scanner and 0.1 to 0.2 by digigimbal. Subscene direction and focal changes best synchronize with frame reception. FSMs best have refractory bearings and electromagnetic pointing.

Apparatus and method for simultaneous plural-view image sequences from a single image sensor

Growing community of inventors

Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Tony Pittner