The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 22, 1997
Filed:
Dec. 21, 1994
David L Gilblom, Los Altos, CA (US);
Peter S Castro, Los Altos, CA (US);
Picker International, Inc., Highland Heights, OH (US);
Abstract
One or more time delay and integration camera assemblies (A) are mounted in a housing (100) which is rotated by a motor (40, 106) relative to a vertical axis. A tachometer or encoder (44) produces signals whose frequency or voltage varies in accordance with an angular velocity of the camera assemblies about the vertical axis. A clock generator (46) converts the angular velocity signals into clocking signals for controlling movement of vertical lines of data values (20) along an array (14) of light sensitive elements to a shift register (22). In one embodiment, the clock generator includes a divider (82) which converts the angular velocity signal into a voltage, a comparator (84) which compares the first voltage with a second voltage, and a voltage controlled oscillator (88) which oscillates to generate the clocking signal. A second divider (88) defines a feedback loop between the output of the voltage controlled oscillator and the comparator for generating the second voltage. Each line of data from the array update (64) a corresponding line of a panoramic memory (66). The selectable portion (72) of the data from the panoramic memory is retrieved (70) independently of the memory updating. Scan converters (74) convert retrieved portions of the panoramic memory data into appropriate format for display on video monitor (78). In this manner, the panoramic memory is updated as the array rotates and data is independently retrieved from the panoramic memory to form panable displays.