Television – Camera – system and detail – With flying spot scanner
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-17
2002-09-10
Garber, Wendy R. (Department: 2612)
Television
Camera, system and detail
With flying spot scanner
C348S167000, C348S262000, C348S335000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06449012
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a scanning type image pick-up apparatus and a scanning type laser beam receive apparatus suitable for passively or actively scanning a wide view-field by a two-dimensional manner.
In general, in this kind of scanning type image pick-up apparatus, an image pick-up camera internally including an image pick-up element of a charge storing type is used to obtain a light wave. In this image pick-up camera, the image pick-up element has a view angle &thgr; and therefore, a method of scanning a search range to take in a view image is adopted in case of searching a wide view.
In the image pick-up camera as described above, the image pick-up element is provided at a focus position of an optical system, and image data is obtained by taking in light waves of a visible region (e.g., 0.4 &mgr;m to 0.8 &mgr;m) and an infrared region (e.g., 3 &mgr;m to 12 &mgr;m) received by the optical system and performing photoelectric conversion thereon. Therefore, if an angle range equivalent to an instant view angle of one pixel of the image pick-up element is scanned in one direction at a speed faster than the speed at which the image pick-up element is exposed, a so-called image flow is caused and the view image obtained thereby becomes unclear.
Therefore, a conventional scanning type image pick-up apparatus adopts a reflection mirror step scanning method in which a reflection mirror is provided before an image pick-up camera and the reflection mirror is scanned in steps for every unit angle equivalent to a view angle in synchronism with the frame time of the image pick-up element, thereby to pick up light waves into an image pick-up element within one frame time (or exposure time) and to obtain a view image, or a camera step scanning method in which an image pick-up camera directly performs scanning in steps, thereby to pick up light waves into an image pick-up element within one frame time (or exposure time) and to obtain a view image.
However, if the scanning type image pick-up apparatus as described above is constructed so as to have a wide view range, a large reflection mirror is required from the limitations of the focal distance and the image pick-up distance, in case of the former method, and an optical system such as a converging lens must be a large size, in case of the latter method. Thus, in both cases, the apparatus has a very heavy weight. Therefore, in any of these methods, a large driving force is required for step scanning, and a time delay occurs when scanning is started, so that it is difficult to obtain stable view images.
For example, since a reflection mirror or an image pick-up camera has a large size and a heavy weight, it is very difficult to perform step scanning with a high speed of about an image pick-up element frame frequency 60 Hz and a frame cycle 16.7 ms, and therefore, a problem occurs in that a clear image is difficult to obtain. The same problem occurs in case of a scanning type laser beam receive apparatus.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
As has been explained above, a conventional scanning type image pick-up apparatus has a problem in that it is difficult to obtain a clear view image when search over a wide view is realized.
The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and has an object of providing a scanning type image pick-up apparatus and a laser beam receive apparatus which obtain a clear view image over a wide view to realize highly reliable search with high precision.
A scanning type image pick-up apparatus comprising: an image pick-up camera for converging a light wave by a first optical system, changing an optical path of the light wave by a second optical system, and taking in the light wave into a charge storage type image pick-up element, thereby to obtain a view image, the second optical system being arranged to be capable of freely performing scanning on the image pick-up element with the light wave from the first optical system; camera scanning means for causing the image pick-up camera to linearly scan a view range, thereby to take in the light wave into the first optical system; and first optical system scanning means for causing the second optical system of the image pick-up camera to perform triangular scanning in a direction opposite to a scanning direction of the image pick-up camera for every frame cycle of the image pick-up camera, thereby to introduce the light wave converged by the first optical system into the image pick-up element.
A scanning type image pick-up apparatus comprising: an image pick-up camera for converging a light wave by a first optical system, changing an optical path of the light wave by a second optical system, and taking in the light wave into a charge storage type image pick-up element, thereby to obtain a view image, the second optical system being arranged to be capable of freely performing scanning so as to correspond to the first optical system and the image pick-up element; camera scanning means for causing the image pick-up camera to linearly scan a view range, thereby to take in the light wave into the first optical system; and a rotation mechanism for rotating the second optical system of the image pick-up camera around an optical axis by an angle decided by scanning angle speeds in two axial directions of the two-dimensional scanning means and around an axis parallel to an incidence surface of the image pick-up element at an angle speed decided by scanning angle speeds in the two axial directions of the two-dimensional scanning means.
In addition, a scanning type laser beam receive apparatus comprising: a laser radar for converging a laser beam by a first optical system, for changing an optical path of the laser beam by a second optical system, and for taking in the laser beam into a laser beam receiver, thereby to obtain a view image, the second optical system being arranged to be capable of freely performing scanning so as to correspond to the first optical system and the laser beam receiver; and two-dimensional scanning means for causing the laser radar to linearly scan a view range, thereby to take in the laser beam into the first optical system, characterized in that the second optical system of the laser radar includes a mechanism which rotates the second optical system around an optical axis by an angle decided by scanning angle speed in two axial directions of the two-dimensional scanning means and around an axis parallel to a light receive surface of the laser beam receiver at an angle speed decided by scanning angle speeds in the two axial directions of the two-dimensional scanning means.
Another a scanning type image pick-up apparatus characterized by comprising: an image pick-up camera for converging a light wave by a first optical system, for changing an optical path of the light wave by a second optical system, and for taking in the light wave into a charge storage type image pick-up element, thereby to obtain a view image, the second optical system being arranged to be capable of freely performing scanning with use of an electro-optical deflector capable of electrically deflecting the light wave so as to correspond to the first optical system and the image pick-up element; scanning means for causing the image pick-up camera to linearly scan a view range, thereby to take in the light wave into the first optical system; and deflector drive means for causing the electro-optical deflector to deflect an optical axis at an angle decided by a scanning angle speed of the scanning means.
Or, another a scanning type image pick-up apparatus characterized by comprising: an image pick-up camera for converging a light wave by a first optical system, for changing an optical path of the light wave by a second optical system, and for taking in the light wave into a charge storage type image pick-up element, thereby to obtain a view image, the second optical system being arranged to be capable of freely performing scanning in a two-dimensional direction with use of first and second electro-optical deflectors respectively capable
Fujibayashi Keizo
Hayashi Yoshihiko
Hosaka Naoki
Sado Tetsuo
Garber Wendy R.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Wilson Jacqueline
LandOfFree
Scanning type image pick-up apparatus and a scanning type... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Scanning type image pick-up apparatus and a scanning type..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Scanning type image pick-up apparatus and a scanning type... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2839332