Optical system
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorRomeo I. Mercado
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A compact, small form factor optical system for cameras that provides multiple optical paths to capture images of an object field in different portions of the light spectrum. The optical system includes a front lens group that captures visible and near-infrared (NIR) light from an object field and refracts the light to a beam splitter that splits the visible light and the NIR light onto two paths. On the visible light path, a visible light lens group refracts the visible light to form an image of the object field at a visible light sensor. On the NIR light path, a NIR light lens group refracts the NIR light to form an image of the object field at an NIR light sensor. The optical system thus provides images of the object field at two sensor planes, one image in the visible spectrum and the other image in the NIR spectrum.
Claims25
An optical system, comprising:
- a front lens group comprising one or more refractive lens elements;
- a beam splitter;
- a visible light lens group comprising one or more refractive lens elements;
- and
- a near-infrared (NIR) lens group comprising one or more refractive lens elements;
- wherein the front lens group is configured to receive visible and NIR light from an object field and refract the visible and NIR light to the beam splitter;
- wherein the beam splitter is configured to direct the visible light to the visible light lens group and direct the NIR light to the NIR light lens group;
- wherein the visible light lens group is configured to refract the visible light to form a visible light image at a visible light sensor;
- wherein the NIR light lens group is configured to refract the NIR light to form a NIR light image at a NIR light sensor;
- and
- wherein a field of view (FOV) of the visible light image formed by the visible light lens group at the visible light sensor is different than a FOV of the NIR light image formed by the NIR light lens group at the NIR light sensor.
A method, comprising:
- receiving, at a front lens group of an optical system, visible and near-infrared (NIR) light from an object field, the front lens group comprising one or more refractive lens elements;
- refracting, by the front lens group, the visible and the NIR light to a beam splitter;
- splitting, by the beam splitter, the visible light and the NIR light to a visible light lens group and a NIR light lens group respectively, wherein the visible light lens group comprises one or more refractive lens elements and the near-infrared (NIR) lens group comprises one or more refractive lens elements;
- refracting, by the visible light lens group, the visible light to form a visible light image at a visible light sensor;
- and
- refracting, by the NIR light lens group, the NIR light to form a NIR light image at a NIR light sensor;
- wherein a field of view (FOV) of the visible light image formed by the visible light lens group at the visible light sensor is different than a FOV of the NIR light image formed by the NIR light lens group at the NIR light sensor.
A system comprising;
- one or more processors;
- a memory comprising program instructions;
- and
- one or more cameras, wherein at least one of the cameras includes an optical system that is configured to:
- receive visible and near-infrared (NIR) light from an object field at a front lens group that is configured to refract the visible and NIR light to a beam splitter;
- wherein the beam splitter is configured to direct the visible light to a visible light lens group and directs the NIR light to a NIR light lens group;
- wherein the visible light lens group is configured to refract the visible light to form a visible light image at a visible light sensor;
- and
- wherein the NIR light lens group is configured to refract the NIR light to form a NIR light image at a NIR light sensor;
- wherein a field of view (FOV) of the visible light image formed by the visible light lens group at the visible light sensor is different than a FOV of the NIR light image formed by the NIR light lens group at the NIR light sensor;
- and
- wherein the program instructions are executable by the one or more processors to:
- obtain visible light images captured by the visible light sensor and the NIR light images captured by the NIR light sensor;
- and
- process the visible light images and the NIR light images to generate information about the object field, wherein the information includes depth information for the object field obtained from the NIR light images.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.