Miniature integrated multispectral/multipolarization digital camera

Apparatus for acquisition, and preparation for display, of a multispectral, multipolarization motion picture;

• said apparatus comprising:
• means for acquisition and recording, through a single optical aperture, in common, of successive multispectral, multipolarization image frames, wherein a multispectral, multipolarization image frame is an image frame comprising multiple different wavelengths or colors and plural polarization states;
• a single optical aperture being an aperture that does not comprise plural optical apertures in parallel;
• said acquisition-and-recording means comprising means for discriminating among at least some of said multiple different wavelengths or colors in the image frames, and among at least some of said polarization states in the image frames;
• and
• means for controlling frame acquisition rates of the acquisition means, in accordance with characteristics of the scene or of an acquisition process.

Apparatus for multispectral and multipolarization imaging;

• said apparatus comprising:
• first means, operating with substantially only ambient radiation, for recording a multispectral image of a scene, wherein a multispectral image is an image comprising multiple different wavelengths or colors;
• said recording means comprising means for discriminating among at least some of said multiple different wavelengths or colors in the scene;
• and
• second means, also operating with substantially only ambient radiation, for establishing a polarization-state image of the same scene;
• wherein the first and second means share a common radiation-sensor array.

A digital camera for plural-wavelength-band imaging with polarization information included;

• said camera comprising:
• an imaging sensor chip that is sensitive to optical radiation in at least two wavelength bands that substantially are mutually distinct, for recording an image;
• said chip having a plurality of sensitive layers, each layer disposed substantially continuously across a field of view, and each layer being spectrally responsive respectively to a particular one of the at least two wavelength bands;
• wherein the sensitive layers for each of the bands, respectively, enable the sensor chip to discriminate spectrally among the bands of the radiation;
• said sensitive layers being stacked in series, so that incoming radiation in at least one of the at least two bands penetrates plural layers to reach a spectrally corresponding sensitive layer;
• a polarization mosaic overlaid on the stack of sensitive layers, also substantially continuously across the field of view;
• said mosaic defining an array of superpixels that impose polarization-state differentiation on the sensitive layers;
• and
• an electronic shutter to actuate the sensitive layers for exposure through the polarization mosaic for calibrated time periods, to acquire information for the image in said distinct wavebands with polarization information included;
• the camera having no means for vibrationally inducing diffractive fringes.

An image system comprising:

• means for generating a temporal sequence of spatially registered multispectral, multipolarization images, wherein said multispectral, multipolarization images each comprise multiple wavelength bands or colors, and plural polarization states;
• wherein the generating means operate using substantially only incoherent radiation, and comprise means for discriminating among the wave-length bands or colors, and among the polarization states, and means for temporally sampling at a sampling rate to form said sequence;
• and
• the image system having no radio-frequency modulator.

Apparatus for multispectral and multipolarization imaging;

• said apparatus comprising:
• means for acquiring data representing at least one multispectral image of a scene, including information that establishes polarization state at all or most points of the image;
• wherein:
• said at least one multispectral image comprises multiple different wavelengths or color bands;
• and the data comprise multiple data categories corresponding to the different wavelengths or color bands respectively;
• and
• the data-acquiring means comprise means for discriminating among the data corresponding to the respective wavelengths or color bands;
• and
• said acquiring means comprising a single optical aperture for passage of all optical rays used in formulating the multispectral-image and polarization-state data.