KR102095330B1 - Wide-field of view (fov) imaging devices with active foveation capability - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention includes a wide field of view image and a focused image system capable of capturing a focused image, wherein the focused image can control the region of interest of the wide field of view image. .

Description

FIELD OF VIEW (FOV) IMAGING DEVICES WITH ACTIVE FOVEATION CAPABILITY

Related applications

[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 620,581 filed April 5, 2012 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 620,574 filed April 5, 2012, all of which are provisional applications. Is incorporated herein by reference.

Field of invention

[0002] The present invention relates generally to wide-field of view (FOV) imaging devices, and more specifically, but not exclusively, to a small FOV inside the large FOV and the large FOV with much higher resolution. It relates to a dual resolution wide FOV imaging system that can be captured simultaneously.

Real-time capture of high resolution, wide field of view (FOV) and high dynamic range (HDR) images is essential in many military and civil surveillance applications. For example, a system with sufficient resolution and frame rate can quickly zoom to one or multiple objects of interest for reliable identification and characterization of objects, while having very large motion fields (e.g., There is an urgent need for an omnidirectional imaging system of multiple surveillance applications that can monitor activities in all directions simultaneously over a spherical or complimentary hemispherical coverage. Such a sensor needs to provide both excellent situational awareness and sufficient detail resolution. Sensors of this type, if available, can find countless applications in both military and commercial markets.

However, when designing an optical imaging system, finite sensor resolution and data bandwidth impose limitations on the spatial resolution and FOV achievable in modern imaging systems. There is a well-known unique trade-off between FOV and resolution power for most conventional imaging techniques with a fixed number of pixels: the wider the FOV, the lower the resolution power. Using conventional cluster-based omni-directional cameras as an example to achieve 1 arc minute (~ 300 micro-rad) angular resolution, a 360 ° x 360 ° spherical field Requires at least 50 miniature FOV cameras (e.g., FOV: 33 ° x 25 °) with a 5-megapixel sensor on each to cover a minimum of 250 megapixels captured for a single spherical panoramic image It is allowed to be saved, transmitted, and prevents any pixel loss and FOV overlap. Achieving an angular resolution of 2 arc seconds requires a huge number of cameras in thousands of units to cover the spherical field. As a result, the cost and size of a camera-cluster-based system will not be acceptable for many inspection applications, and clustering with thousands of high-resolution cameras is a challenge for modern data management and image processing technologies. Don't mention that it imposes great challenges.

[0005] Foveation techniques can actively track and capture a region of interest using a high-resolution sensor, without losing the imaging capability of the surrounding area, similar to the human vision system's forcing characteristics. Various imaging systems have been developed to explore the potential of applying the navigation technique in imaging applications. For example, Sandini et al. Developed retina-like CMOS sensors with spatial-variable resolution to mimic the human retina (G.Sandini, P.Questa, D.Scheffer and A.Mannucci, "A retina-like CMOS sensor and its applications "Reports of the IEEE Workshop on Sensor Arrays and Multichannel Signaling Processes (2000), pp.514-9. Martinez and Wick proposed using a liquid crystal spatial light modulator to dynamically correct aberrations in the foveed region inside the wide FOV of the imaging system (T.Martinez, DVWick and SRRestaino, "Foveated, wide field- of-view imaging system using a liquid crystal spatial light modulator ", Opt. Express 8, 555-60 (2001); DVWick, T.Martinez, SRRestaino and BRStone," Foveated imaging demonstration, "Opt. Express 10, 60-5 (2002)). The approaches described above use only a single-sensor to capture both the surrounding area and the focused area, which limits the overall information throughput of the system. Alternatively, Hua and Liu proposed a dual-sensor approach to the navigation imaging technique where two separate sensors are used to capture the surrounding area and the focused area (Hong Hua and Sheng Liu, "Dual- Sensor foveated imaging system, "APPLIED OPTICS, Vol. 47, No. 3, 317-327, 2008). Compared to the single sensor approach, the dual sensor approach uses two different sensors, which can be of different sizes and different resolutions, which has the potential to yield high information throughput with low-cost detectors. The main drawback of the dual-sensor approach is that the system uses an afocal system structure, which usually has limited ability to achieve large ambient FOV and often results in a bulky system.

[0006] The present invention is a dual-sensor wide-FOV fob that can acquire wide-FOV videos of the surrounding space in real time and at the same time obtain very high resolution, high-magnification, high-magnification, foveed images of multiple targets. It relates to an etched imaging technique. Wide-FOV video with the appropriate resolution and frame rate enables real-time ability to simultaneously observe the surrounding space to capture, detect and track impending threats by objects, while high-definition captured videos are critical target recognition And in real time on a number of smaller parts of a wide-FOV with significantly higher resolution to enable characterization. The region of interest (ROI) of the focused view can be steered in real time for any portion of the wide FOV image. These abilities are similar to the human visual system's search, tracking and navigation functions. By integrating the navigation capability into a wide-FOV imaging system, the present invention is capable of capturing a wide viewing field up to 360 ° x 360 ° with high normal resolution.

[0007] The present invention typically includes two subsystems, a wide-FOV imaging subsystem and a focused imaging subsystem; The two subsystems are integrated as one system, where the two imaging subsystems share the same objective lens, which can make the system design simple and lightweight. The stop of the forensic imaging subsystem is optically coupled to the stop of the wide-FOV imaging subsystem through a beam splitter. In the present invention, the wide-FOV imaging subsystem captures a wide view field, while the fovied imaging subsystem captures one or a few selected portions of the wide view field and enables accurate target recognition. It produces very high resolution videos. Compared to modern surveillance systems, the present invention has the advantage of relatively low cost, simplicity, low power consumption, low data bandwidth requirements as well as uncompromised high performance in terms of FOV, resolution and real-time capture.

[0008] The objective lens of the present invention utilizes rotationally symmetrical refracting optical elements to capture an umbrella-like FOV or utilizes a curved mirror with inevitable rotationally symmetrical refracting optical elements to capture a ring-like panoramic FOV You can. The scanning mirror of the present invention can be a dual-axis scanning mirror to sample a wide-FOV using two tilting movements, or a single-axis scanning mirror for sampling a wide-FOV using a combined movement of tilting and rotation. Can be

[0009] In one aspect of the present invention, an exemplary system may incorporate multiple wide-FOV forged imaging units to achieve a much larger FOV than that of a single unit. The integrated system may or may not have single viewpoint characteristics. When a single point of view characteristic is desired, a multi-plane mirror can be used to virtually collocate the point of view of all imaging units in the system integrated into a single point of view.

The above summary and the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention may be further understood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

1 schematically illustrates an exemplary optical system in accordance with the present invention.
2 schematically illustrates the movements of two types of scanning mirrors used according to the invention.
3 schematically illustrates an exemplary design of the optical system described above in accordance with the present invention.
4 schematically illustrates another exemplary design of the optical system described above in accordance with the present invention, including a curved mirror surface.
[0015] FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of an example of an image processing pipeline in accordance with the present invention.
6 schematically illustrates a design layout of an exemplary optical system including multiple imaging units in accordance with the present invention.

Embodiments according to the present invention will be fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The description is presented to provide an understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent that the present invention may be practiced without these details. In addition, the present invention can be implemented in various forms. However, the embodiments of the present invention described below should not be interpreted as being limited to the embodiments presented herein. Rather, these embodiments, figures and examples are exemplary and are intended to avoid obscuring the present invention.

[0018] The main embodiment of the present invention includes a foviated imaging system 100 capable of capturing a wide field of view image and a foveated image, and The focused image is a controllable region of interest of the wide field of view image, and the system comprises:

a. An objective lens 110 directed to an external scene, configured to receive light entering from the external scene and focus the light on a beam splitter;

b. A beam splitter 120 configured to split incoming light from the external scene into a wide field of view imaging path 125 and a focused imaging path 135;

c. Wide field of view imaging path 125 and

d. Includes a fovied view imaging path 135,

The wide field of view imaging path,

i. A first stop unit 127 for limiting the amount of light received in the wide field of view path from the beam splitter 120;

ii. A wide field of view imaging lens 130 configured to receive light from the stop 127 and form a wide field view image on a wide field of view imaging sensor;

iii. A wide field of view imaging sensor 140 configured to receive light from the wide field of view imaging lens 130,

The fovied view imaging path,

i. A second stopper unit 137 for limiting the amount of light received in the focused imaging path from the beam splitter 120;

ii. A scanning mirror 150 that can be controlled to reflect light from the beam splitter 120;

iii. A focused imaging lens 160 configured to receive, from the scanning mirror 150, a portion of the light associated with the region of interest of the external scene and form a focused image on the focused imaging sensor;

iv. And a focused imaging sensor 170 configured to receive light from the focused imaging lens 160.

[0019] In some embodiments, light entering from an external scene is transmitted through the objective lens 110 to the beam splitter 120, where the beam splitter 120 directs light into two optical paths, ie a wide field. It is divided into an orb imaging path 125 and a fovied imaging path 135. In the wide field of view path, light is transmitted through the first stop 127 to the wide field of view imaging lens 130 along the wide field of view imaging path 125. The lens focuses the wide field of view image on the wide field of view imaging sensor 140. On the fovied view imaging path, light is transmitted through the second stop 137 to the scanning mirror 150 along the fovied imaging path 135, where the scanning mirror 150 is an empty divider ( 120) the region of interest is reflected toward the foveed imaging lens 160. The aperture of the scanning mirror 150 may perform the function of the second stop 137 to limit the amount of light received in the forbidden imaging path 135 from the beam splitter 120. The focused imaging lens 160 focuses the focused image on the focused imaging sensor 170.

In some embodiments, objective lens 110 is disposed on the front of the system. The beam splitter 120 that receives light from the objective lens is disposed close to the objective lens. The beam splitter 120 splits the light into two optical paths, a wide field of view imaging path 125 and a focused imaging path 135. The first stop 127 is in optical communication with the empty splitter 120 along the wide field of view imaging path 125, and the second stop 137 is along the beamed imaging path 135 beam splitter. Optical communication with 120. The scanning mirror 150 is disposed at or near the location of the second stop 137, where it receives light from the beam splitter 120 along the fovied imaging path 135 and beams the light. Reflect back to 120. The wide field of view imaging lens 130 is positioned to face the first stop 127 along the wide field of view imaging path 125, where it is the first stop along the wide field of view imaging path 125 Light is received from the beam splitter 120 through the unit 127. The foviated imaging lens 160 is positioned to face the beam splitter 120, where it is light from the beam splitter 120 reflected from the scanning mirror 150 along the fovied imaging path 135. To receive. The wide field of view imaging sensor 140 is positioned to face the wide field of view imaging lens 130. The foviated imaging sensor 170 is positioned to face the foviated imaging lens 160. Two images, a wide field of view image and a high resolution image in the region of interest in it, are recorded by sensors.

In some embodiments, the objective lens 110 is located in front of the system. The beam splitter 120 is located between the objective lens and the stop 137 facing the objective lens 110 and the scanning mirror 150, so that it receives light from the objective lens. The scanning mirror 150 is located behind the beam splitter, which receives light from the beamed image path of the beam splitter 120 and reflects the light back to the beam splitter 120. The wide field of view imaging lens 130 is directed towards the wide field of view image path of the beam splitter, while the focused imaging lens 160 is directed towards the fovied image optical path of the beam splitter 120. The wide field of view imaging sensor 140 faces the wide-field-of-view imaging lens 130, and the focused imaging sensor 170 faces the focused imaging lens 160.

In some embodiments, light entering from an external scene is transmitted to the beam splitter through the objective lens 110, where the beam splitter 120 performs a copy of the light to the wide field of view lens 130 ) And a second copy of light to the scanning mirror 150. The scanning mirror 150 reflects the region of interest back to the beam splitter 120, and the beam splitter reflects light to the fovied imaging lens 160. On the other hand, the wide field of view imaging lens 130 transmits light from the wide field of view imaging path 125 to the wide field of view imaging sensor 140. The foviated imaging lens 160 transmits light from the foviated imaging path 135 to the foviated imaging sensor 170. Thus, two images, a wide field off-view image and a high-resolution image of the region of interest within it, are recorded by the sensors.

1 illustrates an exemplary system layout 100 in accordance with the present invention for a dual-sensor wide-FOV focused imaging system. The system includes two subsystems: a wide-FOV imaging subsystem and a navigated imaging subsystem. The wide-FOV imaging subsystem includes an objective lens 110, a beam splitter 120, a stop 127, a wide-FOV imaging lens 130, and an imaging sensor 140. The focused imaging subsystem includes an objective lens 110, a beam splitter 120, a scanning mirror 150, a stop 137, a focused imaging lens 160, and an imaging sensor 170. do. In this exemplary layout 100, the two imaging subsystems share the same objective lens 110 as well as the optical path 115. Light in the FOV 105 is captured by the objective lens 110. After the light has passed through the objective lens 110, the optical path 115 is divided into two different paths by the beam splitter 120; It is divided into a wide-FOV imaging path 125 and a fovied imaging path 135. In the wide-FOV imaging path 125, the wide-FOV imaging lens 130 images the entire visual field in the FOV 105 captured by the objective lens 110 on the wide-FOV imaging sensor 140. do. In the focused imaging path 135, the scanning mirror 150 is disposed at or near the location of the stop 137 and reflects some rays in the FOV 105 captured by the objective lens 110. . By instantaneously tilting the scanning mirror 150 toward the direction of interest, the rays from the sub-FOV of interest of the FOV 105 are redirected to the beam splitter 120 and towards the focused imaging lens 160. It is imaged on the reflected and focused imaging sensor 170.

In this exemplary layout 100, the objective lens 110 is rotationally symmetrical to capture a continuous umbrella-like FOV or near-hemispherical-shape FOV, or near-spherical-shape FOV. symmetric lenses). The objective lens 110 may also include a curved mirror surface along a rotationally symmetric lens that is essential for capturing a ring-like panoramic FOV. The curved mirror may be a spherical mirror, a parabolic mirror, a hyperbolic mirror, a conical mirror, an elliptical mirror, an aspherical mirror, with or without symmetry or similarity. Imaging sensors 140 and 170 include, but are not limited to, charge-couple devices (CCDs) or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) or other types of photo-sensing devices, which convert photons into electrical signals. Can be any photo-sensing device that includes an array of photo-sensing units (pixels) that convert to. The scanning mirror 150 includes (but is not limited to) a voice coil mirror, a piezoelectric mirror, a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) mirror or other type of scanning mirror, so that the scanning movement can be controlled electronically. It can be any type of fast moving mirror device. The scanning mirror 150 may be controlled by a scanning mirror controller, and the scanning mirror controller may have an electronic interface capable of communicating with a microprocessor. The beam splitter 120 may be in the form of a cube or plate, and may be a non-polarized beam splitter or a polarized beam splitter. When a polarized beam splitter is used, a quarter-wave plate can be used with the beam splitter to increase light efficiency. The quarter wave plate may be located in the space between the beam splitter 120 and the stop 137. Additional polarizers can be used in both the fovied imaging path 135 and the wide-FOV imaging path 125 to reduce crosstalk between the two paths.

As one of the benefits of the present invention, the present invention combines two imaging subsystems into one integrated system, where the two imaging subsystems share the same objective lens, which makes the system compact and lightweight. You can do this. The stop 137 of the foviated imaging subsystem is optically coupled to the stop 127 of the wide-FOV imaging subsystem through the beam splitter 120. For the purposes of the present invention, the wide-FOV imaging subsystem captures a wide view field, while the fovied imaging subsystem captures one or a few selected portions of the wide view field and enables accurate target recognition. It produces very high resolution videos. Compared to modern inspection systems, the present invention has the advantage of relatively low cost, simplicity, low power consumption, low data bandwidth requirements, as well as uncompromised high performance in terms of FOV, resolution and real-time capture.

In one aspect of the present invention, the scanning mirror is a dual axis scanning unit for continuously sampling a wide-FOV through tilting movements 253 and 254 along the X and Y axes, as illustrated in FIG. 2. (252). The scanning mirror also has the ability to rotate or rotate along the z axis as shown in FIG. 2B, where the mirror samples the wide-FOV through tilt movement 257 along the Y axis and rotation movement 258 along the Z axis. It may be a single-axis scanning unit 255 mounted on (256).

Compared to the dual sensor approach in the prior art, the present invention uses a regular imaging system structure within an imaging system with an optical stop having a group of lenses in front of the stop and a group of lenses behind the stop. Advantages of using a regular imaging system architecture over prior art apocalyptic systems include:

a. Allowing a more compact system and easier design in that certain optical aberrations can be corrected by using lenses on both sides of the stop;

b. Achieve a much larger FOV than that of an afocal system while maintaining a compact form factor.

[0028] In another important aspect, the present invention utilizes a pair of optically coupled stops, each located inside an imaging system and created through a beam splitter and located in wide field of view and foviated view optical paths. In the prior art, the stop is placed at the entrance of the afocal system, and the image of the stop created through the afocal system is on the other side of the afocal system.

Another important aspect is that, in the prior art, the scanning mirror is controllable only through the X and Y tilt axes. In the present invention, the scanning mirror can also be configured to use X or Y, tilt and Z rotation instead.

3 schematically illustrates an exemplary design 300 of the present invention that utilizes only a rotationally symmetrical lens to capture an umbrella-like FOV 305. In this exemplary design 300, objective lens 310 includes only planar-concave lens elements. Three element lenses are used as wide-FOV (wide field of view) imaging lenses 330. The wide field of view imaging lens 330 may be a group of rotationally symmetric lenses that magnify the wide field of view image, and the wide field of view imaging lens 330 may include aspheric reflective or refractive surfaces. A dual-axis high-speed scanning mirror 350 scanning in both X and Y directions is placed near the stop 337 to sample the Region of Interest (ROI) in the FOV 305. The beam splitter 320 is a wire-grid type polarization beam splitter. The quarter wave plate 380 is disposed between the beam splitter 320 and the scanning mirror 350 to change the polarization of light after passing through the quarter plate twice. In one of the exemplary implementations, the foviated (forbidden) imaging lens 360 can use a cemented doublet. The forbidden imaging lens 360 may be a group of rotationally symmetric lenses that magnify the forbidden image, and the forbidden imaging lens 360 may include aspheric reflective or refractive surfaces. To further improve the system optical performance, more lens elements can be added in both the imaging path and the wide-FOV imaging path before or after stops.

4 schematically illustrates an exemplary design 400 of the present invention utilizing a curved mirror to capture a ring-like panoramic FOV 405. In this exemplary design 400, the objective lens 410 includes five optical elements. The first element of the objective lens 410 is a curved mirror 412. The optical surface of the curved mirror 412 can be described by a 1-dimmentional polynomial swept 360 ° whose surface profile is along its axis of rotation 414. The 4-element lens is used as a wide-FOV imaging lens 430. The single-axis high-speed scanning mirror 450 is mounted on a rotating stage and arranged near the stop 437 to scan the panoramic FOV 405 through tilting and rotating movements as described in connection with FIG. 2B. . The beam splitter 420 may utilize a polarized beam splitter. The quarter wave plate 48 is disposed between the beam splitter 420 and the scanning mirror 450 to change the polarization of light after passing through the quarter wave plate twice. In one of the exemplary implementations, the forged imaging lens 460 can use a bonded doublet. To further improve system optical performance, more lens elements can be added in both the imaging path and the wide-FOV imaging path before or after stops.

[0032] FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of an example of an image processing pipeline required for the present invention. First, the event / object detection algorithm needs to process a wide-FOV image to discover the region (s) of interest (ROI). When the region of interest is identified, a signal according to the location (angle) information of the ROI is transmitted to a high-speed scanning mirror to resample the region of interest using a foviated imaging sensor. The image analysis algorithm is then applied to the fovied image to collect detailed information about the ROI. The results of the analysis will determine if there is a need to track areas and / or perform additional actions. Sometimes, if one or a few images may not be enough to characterize the ROI, in addition to tracking with a scanning mirror, it is necessary to continue tracking the ROI in the panoramic view.

6 schematically illustrates the design layout 600 of an exemplary optical system that includes multiple imaging units for an extended system FOV. The exemplary system includes at least two wide-FOV focused imaging devices clustered together to capture a specified FOV that is larger than a single unit's FOV. In design layout 600, four wide-FOV focused imaging devices 682-688 are used to extend the entire FOV 360 degrees. The image units are mounted together with their FOV pointing opposite each other. It is preferred that the imaging units are mounted in such a way that there is a FOV overlap between any two neighboring units in order to remove blind spots in the entire FOV of the system 600. Using the units 682 and 684 as examples, the FOV boundary 692 of the unit 682 allows the imaging unit to ensure that there is no FOV gap between the two units beyond a certain distance from the imaging units. At this distance in Delaubu, it must intersect the FOV boundary 694 of the unit 684.

[0034] In one aspect of the invention in connection with FIG. 6, the exemplary system of FIG. 6 does not have a single perspective. A single perspective means that all imaging units in a cluster effectively capture the entire field of view from a common viewing position, while imaging units in a multi-perspective cluster capture the imaging field from displaced viewing positions. For a particular application, it is desirable that the entire imaging field is captured from a single perspective. To achieve a single viewpoint characteristic, a multi-plane mirror can be used to virtually co-locate the viewpoints of all imaging units in a cluster system in a single viewpoint.

Claims (21)

A forbidden imaging system configured to capture a wide field of view image and a foveated image, wherein the forbidden image is a controllable region of interest of the wide field of view image,
The system is:
An objective lens configured to face the external scene, receive light entering from the external scene, and focus the light on a beam splitter; And
And the beam splitter configured to split the incoming light from the external scene into a first portion on a wide-field imaging path and a second portion on a forbidden imaging path,
The wide-field imaging path is:
A first stop, limiting the amount of the first portion received in the wide-field imaging path from the beam splitter, separated from the objective lens; And
A widefield imaging lens that is different from the objective lens and configured to receive the first portion from the first stop and focus the widefield image on the widefield imaging sensor, the widefield imaging sensor from the widefield imaging lens And configured to record the focused first portion as a wide field of view image,
The forbidden imaging path is:
A second stop limiting the second portion received in the forbidden imaging path from the beam splitter;
A scanning mirror that is a dual axis movable mirror tilted with respect to the X and Y axes and configured to reflect a selected region of interest in the second portion from the beam splitter towards the beam splitter;
A reflective surface configured to direct the second portion reflected by the scanning mirror and disposed on the beam splitter; And
A forbidden imaging lens configured to receive, from the scanning mirror, the second portion, associated with the region of interest of the external scene, and to focus the forbidden image on the forbidden imaging sensor, wherein the forbidden imaging sensor is the forbidden imaging lens And configured to record the region of interest from a high-resolution forbidden image.
Wherein the forbidden imaging system is configured to obtain the high resolution forbidden image within the wide field of view image. According to claim 1,
The objective lens is disposed in front of the system,
The beam splitter is disposed near the objective lens and receives light from the objective lens,
The first stop is in optical communication with the beam splitter along the wide field imaging path,
The second stop is in optical communication with the beam splitter along the forbidden imaging path,
The scanning mirror is disposed immediately behind the second stop in the forbidden imaging path, the scanning mirror receives light from the beam splitter along the forbidden imaging path and reflects the light back to the beam splitter ,
The wide-field imaging lens is arranged to face the first stop along the wide-field imaging path, and the wide-field imaging lens receives light from the beam splitter through the first stop along the wide-field imaging path and ,
The forbidden imaging lens is arranged to face the beam splitter, the forbidden imaging lens receives light from the beam splitter reflected from the scanning mirror along the forbidden imaging path,
The wide-field imaging sensor is arranged to face the wide-field imaging lens, and
The forbidden imaging sensor is arranged to face the forbidden imaging lens,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The objective lens is a group of rotationally symmetrical lenses for capturing a substantially hemispherical shaped field of view,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The objective lens utilizes a curved mirror with the necessary rotationally symmetric refractive optical elements to capture a substantially ring shaped field of view,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The imaging sensors are photo-sensing devices that include an array of photo-sensing units (pixels) that convert photons into electronic signals, the photo-sensing device being a charge-couple device (CCD) or a complementary metal-oxide-CMOS. semiconductor),
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The scanning mirror has an electronically controlled scanning movement, and the scanning mirror includes a voice coil mirror, a piezoelectric mirror, or a MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) mirror,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The scanning mirror is a dual axis scanning unit that continuously samples the wide field of view through tilting movements along the X and Y axes.
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The scanning mirror is a single axis rotational scanning unit, and the scanning mirror samples the wide field of view through a tilt motion along the Y axis and a rotational motion along the X axis and the Z axis orthogonal to the Y axis,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The aperture of the scanning mirror performs the function of the second stop to limit the amount of light received in the forbidden imaging path from the beam splitter,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The beam splitter is in the form of a cube, or plate, and is a non-polarized beam splitter or a polarized beam splitter,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The beam splitter is a polarized beam splitter, a quarter-wave plate is used with the beam splitter to increase light efficiency, and the quarter wave plate is the beam splitter and the scanning mirror Is located between,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
Additional polarizers are used in both the forbidden imaging path and the wide field imaging path to reduce crosstalk between the two paths,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The forbidden imaging lens is a group of rotationally symmetric lenses that magnify the forbidden image,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The forbidden imaging lens comprises aspheric reflective or refractive surfaces,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The wide field of view imaging lens is a group of rotationally symmetric lenses that enlarge the wide field of view image,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The wide field of view imaging lens comprises aspheric reflective or refractive surfaces,
Forbidden imaging system. As a multi-ported imaging system,
It comprises at least two forbidden imaging systems according to claim 1 or 2,
The at least two forbidden imaging systems are clustered together to capture a specified wide field of view larger than the wide field of view of a single forbidden imaging system,
Multiple forbidden imaging systems. The method of claim 17,
The at least two forbidden imaging systems are arranged in multiple viewpoints without a wide field of view gap to capture a continuous wide field of view image,
Multiple forbidden imaging systems. The method of claim 17,
The at least two forbidden imaging systems are co-located from a common virtual point of view through a multi-plane mirror,
Multiple forbidden imaging systems. The method of claim 1 or 2,
The scanning mirror is controlled by a scanning mirror controller, the scanning mirror controller having an electronic interface capable of communicating with a microprocessor,
Forbidden imaging system. The method of claim 1 or 2,
Within the wide field of view image, it is combined with a method of controlling a target area of the forbidden image, the method comprising:
a. Receiving images from the wide-field imaging sensor;
b. Detecting a target region of interest;
c. Generating instructions for controlling a high-speed scanning mirror, corresponding to pointing the scanning mirror in the target region of interest;
d. Receiving images from the forbidden imaging sensor; And
e. Characterizing the object in the forbidden image
Containing,
Forbidden imaging system.

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