Brian S James

US Patent:

57987866, Aug 25, 1998

Filed:

May 7, 1996

Appl. No.:

8/646509

Inventors:

Andre G. Lareau - Bloomingdale IL
Brian James - Buffalo Grove IL
William R. Pfister - Schaumburg IL
Kenneth J. Jerkatis - Barrington IL
Stephen R. Beran - Mount Prospect IL
Russell A. Bennett - McHenry IL

Assignee:

Recon/Optical, Inc. - Barrington IL

International Classification:

H04N 718
H04N 947
H04N 5228

US Classification:

348144

Abstract:

An electro-optical imaging array having pixels arranged in rows and columns electronically compensates for image motion in the plane of the array regardless of whether the motion vector is in the row direction, the column direction, or in a diagonal direction, i. e. , in some vector combination of row and column directions. In an aerial reconnaissance application, the image motion may be due to rotation of the aircraft about roll, pitch and/or yaw angles in addition to forward velocity of the aircraft. The image motion compensation is achieved with no moving parts and does not require a stabilized platform. A camera control computer determines the magnitude and direction of the image motion from inertial navigation system inputs, including velocity, flight, and aircraft rotation information, and calculates pixel information transfer rates in the row and column directions. The pixel information transfer rates are supplied to a counter and clock driver circuit for the array. The pixel information in the array is transferred in the row and column direction in a step-wise fashion in the row and column directions at a rate and direction substantially matching the image motion.

US Patent:

56920628, Nov 25, 1997

Filed:

Oct 3, 1994

Appl. No.:

8/316734

Inventors:

Andre G. Lareau - Bloomingdale IL
Brian James - Buffalo Grove IL
Russell A. Bennett - McHenry IL

Assignee:

Recon/Optical, Inc. - Barrington IL

International Classification:

G06K 900

US Classification:

382107

Abstract:

An electro-optical imaging array provides compensation for image motion due to variations in scene terrain electronically and with no moving parts. Pixel information representing scene information is transferred through the array in column groups. Each column group has its own charge transfer rate U. Successive images of the scene are generated by the imaging array, and the images are correlated by electronic signal processing circuitry to determine the image displacement of a fixed point in the scene between successive images. The image displacement is used to calculate a residual image velocity U. sub. delta. in each column group. As successive images of the scene are generated, the charge transfer rates U for each column group are updated, whereby U=U. sub. 0 -U. sub. delta. , where U. sub. 0 is the charge transfer rate for the previous exposure, and U. sub. delta. is the residual image velocity in each column group.

US Patent:

6130705, Oct 10, 2000

Filed:

Jul 10, 1998

Appl. No.:

9/113392

Inventors:

Andre G. Lareau - Bloomingdale IL
Stephen R. Beran - Mount Prospect IL
Brian James - Buffalo Grove IL
James P. Quinn - Gurnee IL
John Lund - McHenry IL

Assignee:

Recon/Optical, Inc. - Barrington IL

International Classification:

H04N 1300

US Classification:

348144

Abstract:

An aerial reconnaissance system generates imagery of a scene that meets resolution or field of view objectives automatically and autonomously. In one embodiment, a passive method of automatically calculating range to the target from a sequence of airborne reconnaissance camera images is used. Range information is use for controlling the adjustment of a zoom lens to yield frame-to-frame target imagery that has a desired, e. g. , constant, ground resolution or field of view at the center of the image despite rapid and significant aircraft altitude and attitude changes. Image to image digital correlation is used to determine the displacement of the target at the focal plane. Camera frame rate and aircraft INS/GPS information is used to accurately determine the frame to frame distance (baseline). The calculated range to target is then used to drive a zoom lens servo mechanism to the proper focal length to yield the desired resolution or field of view for the next image. The method may be performed based on parameters other than range, such as aircraft height and stand off distance.