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:
Nov. 23, 2010
Filed:
Apr. 18, 2006
David James Montgomery, Bampton, GB;
Graham Roger Jones, Faringdon, GB;
David James Montgomery, Bampton, GB;
Graham Roger Jones, Faringdon, GB;
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
An adapter is provided for adapting an optical instrument, such as a camera () or a projector, to capture or display panoramic three-dimensional images. The adapter comprises a plurality of mirrors (), each of which has a reflective surface which is in the shape of a curved non-circular conic section rotated about an axis of symmetry (). The reflective surfaces have first foci which are spaced perpendicularly from a longitudinal axis of the adapter and which are angularly spaced around the longitudinal axis. For example, the conic section may be a hyperbola with first foci equidistantly spaced from the longitudinal axis and equiangularly spaced aroundthe longitudinal axis. The axes of symmetry () of the mirrors () converge to intersect the longitudinal axis at a point which is coincident with the front principal point of, for example, a camera lens (). Thus, single shot capture of all the image data for the or each panoramic three-dimensional image may be performed.