Data processing: structural design – modeling – simulation – and em – Modeling by mathematical expression
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-23
2004-06-22
Teska, Kevin J. (Department: 2128)
Data processing: structural design, modeling, simulation, and em
Modeling by mathematical expression
C703S006000, C703S007000, C359S725000, C359S201100, C348S036000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06754614
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the field of panoramic conical mirrors, and particularly to the design and production of panoramic convex conical mirrors for statically viewing any prescribed vertical field of view.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An orthographic mirror is a mirror in which all incoming rays are reflected normal to the imaging plane. Existing designs of orthographic mirrors, such as that described by Nayar in U.S. Pat. No. 5,760,826, utilize the standard equation of a parabola limiting the linearity of the images scene to at best 93%. In addition, this approach is also limited to a constant field of view of 90°, ranging from 0° which is the z=0 plane, to 90° which is typically the position of the imaging system above or below the panoramic mirrored cone element. This arrangement produces a panoramic image in which about 25% of the image is unusable since it falls outside this 90° field of view.
Improvements to this design include incorporating a shifted parabola to define the mirrored surface and allowing the field of view to be adjusted based on specific needs of the application the mirror is designed for. Adjustments to the defined field of view can be accomplished by adjusting the vertical incident angles or by adjusting the radial positions corresponding to the angle limits. These adjustments do result in a linearity higher than that achieved by the pure parabola, but there is still room for improvement.
Commonly-invented, commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,719, issued Feb. 22, 2000, describes use of a panoramic mirrored cone element such as, but not limited to mirrored element of the present disclosure, in an imaging; apparatus that achieves both 360 degree peripheral and forward viewing in a single plane.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improved orthographic mirrored element design.
It is also desirable to provide an improved panoramic conical mirrored element design for statically viewing any prescribed vertical field of view with a scene vertical angle to the image's radial position that achieves linearity greater than 99%.
It is also desirable to provide a means for panoramic imaging of both positive and negative viewing angles, and generally increasing the overall field of view.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Disclosed herein is an improvement in the design of orthographic panoramic mirrored optical elements. By designing a panoramic mirrored cone element as herein disclosed, a linearity greater than 99% can be achieved. The present invention is based on the ability to iteratively improve on the basic parabolic design by making modifications that approach spherical and/or elliptical designs. Testing the linearity of the panoramic imaging element's design is a major part of the iterative process since each element is designed based on application-specific parameters. The improved design allows for the extension of the vertical filed of view to span the range of +70° to −45° while retaining high linearity greater than 99%.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4395093 (1983-07-01), Rosendahl et al.
patent: 4429957 (1984-02-01), King
patent: 4484801 (1984-11-01), Cox
patent: 5473474 (1995-12-01), Powell
patent: 5482568 (1996-01-01), Hockaday
patent: 5631778 (1997-05-01), Powell
patent: 5760826 (1998-06-01), Nayar
patent: 5790181 (1998-08-01), Chahl et al.
patent: 5790182 (1998-08-01), St. Hilaire
patent: 5835252 (1998-11-01), Meier et al.
patent: 5920376 (1999-07-01), Bruckstein et al.
patent: 6003998 (1999-12-01), St. Hilaire
patent: 6028719 (2000-02-01), Beckstead et al.
patent: 6175454 (2001-01-01), Hoogland et al.
patent: 6222683 (2001-04-01), Hoogland et al.
patent: 6373642 (2002-04-01), Wallerstein et al.
patent: 6392687 (2002-05-01), Driscoll, Jr. et al.
patent: 6426774 (2002-07-01), Driscoll, Jr. et al.
“Omniview Cameras with Curved Surface Mirrors”, A. Burckstein, Bell Labs Technical Memo, May 28, 1996.*
“Analysis and Design of Panoramic Stereo Vision Using Equi-Angular Pixel Cameras”, M. Ollis, Carnegie Mellon University, 1999.*
“Omnidirectional Vision: Theory and Algorithms”, K. Daniilidis, IEEE, 2000.*
“Panoramic Cameras for 3D Computation”, T. Svoboda, Czech Pattern Recognition Workshop, Feb. 2000.*
“Stereo with Mirrors”, S. Nene, Sixth International Conference on Computer Vision, Jan. 1998.*
“Omnidirectional Vision”, S. Nayar, 1997 International Symposium on Robotics Research, IEEE 1997.*
“Catadioptric Camera Calibration”, C. Geyer, University of Pennsylvania, NSF CDS-97-03220, 1999.*
Wong, Erwin. Recreation of Three-Dimensional Objects in a Real-Time Simulated Environment by Means of a Panoramic Single lens Stereoscopic Image Capturing Device, SPIE vol. 3598, 2000, pp. 244-251.
Barton, G.; Feldman, S.; Beckstead, J. & Nordhauser, S. A versatile 360 degree panoramic optical system for autonomous robots, SPIE vol. 3525, Nov. 1998, pp. 106-116.
Feldman, S. & Barton, G. Security with the 360degree Television-Intrusion Detection Surveillance System, SPIE vol. 2934, 1997, pp. 166-177.
Matthys, D.R.; Gilbert, J.A. & Puliparambil, J. Endoscopic inpsection using a panoramic annular lens, SPIE vol. 1554B, 1991, pp. 736-742.
Barton George G.
Beckstead Jeffrey A.
Ferris Fred
InterScience, Inc.
Simkulet Michelle D.
Teska Kevin J.
Yablon Jay R.
LandOfFree
Linearized static panoramic optical mirror does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Linearized static panoramic optical mirror, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Linearized static panoramic optical mirror will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3364463