System and method for a digital image sextant
AssigneeWilliam Bertrand
InventorWilliam Bertrand
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed is a system of navigation that is not dependent on man-made satellites. Disclosed is a digital imaging system that may be calibrated using known angular distances and then used to determine unknown angular distances, including the angular distance of celestial bodies above the user's horizon. The digital imaging system may be used in conjunction with a celestial database to determine lines of position and establish a fix revealing the geographic location of the user. The system is expected to be most useful when employed on vessels at sea, including aircraft, and may also be useful on land. The invention offers an alternative to Global Positioning Systems, which are subject to inactivation by governments or traditional mechanical-optical sextants, which are time consuming and cumbersome to use.
Claims13
A system for measuring angular distance between two objects, the system comprising:
- a) an imaging device enabled to make and store a digital image of two objects separated by a known angular distance;
- b) a computational element, comprising:
- a microprocessor, a means of user input, a means of user output, non-transitory computer readable memory medium;
- and computer readable instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable memory medium, enabling the computational element to:
- i) accept input of focal length, size of image detector, and number of pixels of the image detector;
- ii) accept selection of a pixel representative of each of the two objects of the digital image of the two objects separated by a known angular distance;
- iii) accept input of the known angular distance for the pixels selected to represent the two objects of the digital image of the two objects separated by the known angular distance;
- iv) determine pixels per arc from the digital image of the two objects on the digital image of the two objects separated by known angular distance;
- v) correct the pixels per arc for distortion intrinsic to the imaging device where the pixels per arc were not constant across the image:
- and
- vi) store the input and determinations of b) i)-b) v) as calibration parameters;
- c) said imaging device further enabled to make and store a digital image of two objects of unknown angular distance;
- d) said computer readable instructions further enabling the computational element to:
- i) accept the selection of 1 pixel representative of each object of unknown angular distance on a digital image of two objects of unknown angular distance;
- ii) apply said calibration parameters to determine the angular distance between the 2 objects of unknown angular distance;
- and
- iii) output or display said angular distance determination.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.