Device to enhance imaging resolution

Abstract

An imaging device comprising a Focal Plane Array (FPA) image sensor having a grid formed of individual detector elements, arranged in an array of columns and rows, and a mask with a checkerboard pattern of opaque and transparent areas, the mask being located in front of and adjacent to the FPA onto which an image of a scene can be focused by an optical system. The imaging device displaces the mask and FPA with respect to each other in a number of micro-steps that extend in the same direction as that in which a column and a row of the grid extends. The micro-steps in any one direction are of equal lengths which are each a fraction of the length of a detector element. Opaque areas of the mask will then progressively cover equal areas of detector elements in discrete steps for each micro-step movement in one direction at the same time as transparent areas of the mask progressively uncover equal areas of other detector elements for each discrete step. Outputs from the detector elements provide signals for sample slices of the scene for each micro-step and the device reconstructs an image of the scene form those signals. This arrangement allows an enhanced image to be obtained for the scene from the sample slices compared to the image which is obtainable directly from a FPA image sensor or previous types of microscanning arrangements.