Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090028198 | Beaconless adaptive optics system - An improved beaconless adaptive optics system and process. A target is illuminated with a high energy laser beam of a directed energy laser. Wave front measurements are made of high energy laser beam reflections from the target. These wave front measurements are analyzed by a high speed processor to determine both high frequency phase components and low frequency phase components in the wave front data. (Applicants' experiments have shown that there is a direct correlation between beam spot size on the target and the phase variance of the reflected laser beam. The correlation is: the greater the phase variance the smaller the beam spot size.) Applicants have developed a technique for providing special control algorithms that provide very high speed control of the elements of a deformable mirror using this phase variance as a feedback parameter. Applicants have also developed algorithms to correct a limited number of Zernike modes associated with the wave front control. | 01-29-2009 |
20090177398 | Angles only navigation system - An angles only aircraft navigation system. The system includes an IMU coupled with a passive optical sensor. The optical sensor provides periodic updates to the IMU in order to correct for accelerometer and gyro drifts. The IMU computes the air vehicle's instantaneous position, velocity, and attitude using gyro and accelerometer measurements. The optical sensor images stars and satellites. The navigation filter combines optical sensor measurements with IMU inputs, and determines those corrections needed to compensate for the IMU drifts. By applying periodic corrections to the IMU using satellite angular measurements, the navigation filter maintains an accurate position estimate during an entire flight. | 07-09-2009 |
20100128136 | Passive crosswind profiler - A passive optical crosswind profiling system. The system includes at least one telescope defining two apertures separated at a distance and adapted to collect light along at least two separate paths from a field of view containing a target and at least one high-speed digital camera defining at least one many pixel sensor wherein pixels of said at least one many pixel sensor are identified as separate blocks of pixels. The system further includes an optical system for focusing light collected along said at least two separate paths by said at least one telescope onto said at least one many pixel sensor to produce at least two images of the target scene and a high-speed computer processor programmed to with a special block matching correlation algorithm to correlate image data collected the separate blocks of pixels in order to calculate a crosswind profile along a path between said system and said target. | 05-27-2010 |
20100283840 | Miniature celestial direction detection system - A celestial direction finding system. The system includes an inclinometer, at least one camera for imaging both the daytime sky and the nighttime sky and a computer programmed with a sun, moon and star catalog and algorithms for automatically determining directions based on positions of celestial bodies imaged by at least one camera and incline positions measured by the inclinometer. In a preferred embodiment all of the above features are combined in a single battery operated miniature celestial direction finding module. Geographical positions of nearby objects can be determined with the addition of a rangefinder and knowledge of the geographical position of the camera. The geographical position of the system in preferred embodiments can be determined with the addition of a GPS unit. | 11-11-2010 |
20110169953 | Super resolution imaging sensor - A system and process for converting a series of short-exposure, small-FOV zoom images to pristine, high-resolution images, of a face, license plate, or other targets of interest, within a fraction of a second. The invention takes advantage or the fact that some regions in a telescope field of view can be super-resolved; that is, features will appear in random regions which have resolution better than the diffraction limit of the telescope. This effect arises because the turbulent layer in the near-field of the object can act as a lens, focusing rays ordinarily outside the diffraction-limited cone into the distorted image. The physical effect often appears as magnified sub-regions of the image, as if one had held up a magnifying glass to a portion of the image. Applicants have experimentally shown these effects on short-range anisoplanatic imagery, along a horizontal path over the desert. In addition, they have developed powerful parallel processing software to overcome the warping and produce sharp images. | 07-14-2011 |
20120021385 | Celestial weapons orientation measuring system - A celestial weapons orientation measuring system. The system includes a miniature celestial direction detection device. The device includes an inclinometer, a camera for imaging at least one celestial object and a processor programmed with a celestial catalog providing known positions at specific times of at least one celestial object and algorithms for automatically calculating target direction information based on the inclination of the system as measured by the inclinometer and the known positions of the celestial object as provided by the celestial catalog and as imaged by the camera. Similar to the training technique discussed in the background section, the pretend enemy wears a GPS detector and transmitter, and a computer system is preferably provided which determines when a trigger-pull results in a “casualty”. Preferred embodiments also include an inertial navigation sensor including a magnetic compass and a memory-based optical navigation system that permits continued operation on cloudy days and even in certain in-door environments. | 01-26-2012 |
20120105310 | Dynamic foveal vision display - A head mounted display system with at least one retinal display unit having a curved reflector positioned in front of one eye or both eyes of a wearer. The unit includes a first set of three modulated visible-light lasers co-aligned and adapted to provide a laser beam with selectable color and a first scanner unit providing both horizontal and vertical scanning of the laser beam across a portion of the curved reflector in directions so as to produce a reflection of the color laser beam through the pupil of the eye onto a portion of the retina large enough to encompass the fovea. The unit also includes a second set three modulated visible-light lasers plus an infrared laser, all lasers being co-aligned and adapted to provide a color and infrared peripheral view laser beam, and a second scanner unit providing both horizontal and vertical scanning of the visible light and infrared laser beams across a portion of the curved reflector in directions so as to produce a reflection of the scanned color and infrared laser beams through the pupil of the eye onto a portion of retina corresponding to a field of view of at least 30 degrees×30 degrees. | 05-03-2012 |
20120173143 | Celestial compass kit - A celestial compass kit. The kit includes an inclinometer, a camera system with a special telecentric fisheye lens for imaging at least one celestial object and a processor programmed with a celestial catalog providing known positions at specific times of at least one celestial object and algorithms for automatically calculating target direction information based on the inclination of the system as measured by the inclinometer and the known positions of at least one celestial object as provided by the celestial catalog and as imaged by the camera. The telecentric fisheye lens produces an image on the sensor located at or near the focal plane which remains spatially constant within sub-micron accuracies despite thermally produced changes in the focus of the lens. | 07-05-2012 |
20150042793 | Celestial Compass with sky polarization - A celestial compass with a sky polarization feature. The celestial compass includes an inclinometer, a camera system for imaging at least one celestial object and a processor programmed with a celestial catalog providing known positions at specific times of at least one celestial object and algorithms for automatically calculating target direction information based on the inclination of the system as measured by the inclinometer and the known positions of at least one celestial object as provided by the celestial catalog and as imaged by the camera. Preferred embodiments include backup components to determine direction based on the polarization of the sky when celestial objects are not visible. | 02-12-2015 |