Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110026141 | Low Profile Camera and Vision Sensor - A camera configured for a predetermined environment can be made low profile in the following manner. The camera includes an image sensor that has a light sensitive portion that can sense light from the predetermined environment. A substantially opaque mask is disposed above the light sensitive portion of the image sensor and has at least one opening through which the image sensor senses light. The low profile structure of the camera can be realized with substantially transparent material disposed between the substantially opaque mask and the image sensor that has index of refraction that is greater than an index of refraction of the predetermined environment. Accordingly, light through the opening refracts as it passes through the substantially transparent material to the image sensor. | 02-03-2011 |
20110204209 | LOW PROFILE CAMERA AND VISION SENSOR - A monolithic camera configured for a predetermined environment can be made in the following manner. The camera is formed from an integrated circuit that has a light sensitive portion that can sense light from the predetermined environment. Two or more opaque masks are disposed within the oxide layer above the light sensitive pixel array of the image sensor. These opaque masks may be formed from the “metal” layers typically used for signal routing in image sensor integrated circuits. The opaque masks contain arrays of holes arranged so that for each pixel there is a clear path for light to reach the pixel from a corresponding part of the visual field. Each pixel is associated with a different set of holes that allows a different region of the predetermined environment to be observed. | 08-25-2011 |
20120033896 | Visual Motion Processing with Offset Downsampling - An algorithm for removing visual motion from a sequence of two or more images is disclosed. This algorithm may be performed with a camera system having an image sensor capable of downsampling the raw pixel image according to downsampling grid offset by a raw pixel amount. In a first exemplary embodiment a first and second downsampled image are grabbed at different times. Then the displacement between these downsampled images is computed. A third downsampled image is grabbed with an offset based on the displacement. The first and third downsampled images are lined up and cropped. If the camera system itself is moving, moving targets or other objects may be detected by parallax from the first and third downsampled images. In a second exemplary embodiment a block or feature is selected in the visual scene and then a first downsampled image is acquired. After a delay the motion of the block or feature is determined. A second downsampled image is acquired with an offset based on the motion of the block or feature. The first and second downsampled images are lined up and cropped. If the camera system itself is moving, moving targets or other objects may be detected by parallax from the first and second downsampled images. | 02-09-2012 |
20120193517 | OPTICAL MICRO-SENSOR - Briefly, embodiments of an optical micro-sensor are described. | 08-02-2012 |
20120197461 | Vision Based Hover in Place - A method for providing vision based hover in place to an air vehicle is disclosed. Visual information is received using one or more image sensors on the air vehicle and based on the position of the air vehicle. A number of visual displacements is computed from the visual information. One or more motion values are computed based on the visual displacements. One or more control signals are generated based on the motion values. | 08-02-2012 |
20130155327 | Method to Process Image Sequences with Sub-Pixel Displacements - A method for reducing or removing sub-pixel displacements between images in a sequence of images is disclosed. In the first step, a set of images is acquired using a camera system. In the second step, pairwise distances are computed between every pair of images of the set of images. In the third step, the pairwise distances having the smallest values are identified. In the fourth step, “lucky” image pairs are selected from the image pairs having the smallest displacement. These “lucky” image pairs will have a substantially reduced sub-pixel jitter. In an alternative embodiment, after performing the first step and before performing the second step, the set of images are processed to remove whole pixel displacements between the images in the set of images. | 06-20-2013 |
20150097951 | Apparatus for Vision in Low Light Environments - A vision system for use in dark environments is disclosed. The vision system comprises photoreceptor circuits for generating photoreceptor signals, pooling mechanisms for generating pool signals, and an image processing means. The structure of the vision system is inspired from that of nocturnal flying insects. Applications are disclosed including use of the vision system on a mobile platform such as an air vehicle to enable perception and flight stability in dark environments. | 04-09-2015 |