Multi-Camera Array With Shared Spherical Lens
AssigneeGoPro, Inc.
InventorsTimothy MacMillan, Scott Patrick Campbell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Multiple cameras are arranged in an array at a pitch, roll, and yaw that allow the cameras to have adjacent fields of view such that each camera is pointed inward relative to the array. The read window of an image sensor of each camera in a multi-camera array can be adjusted to minimize the overlap between adjacent fields of view, to maximize the correlation within the overlapping portions of the fields of view, and to correct for manufacturing and assembly tolerances. Images from cameras in a multi-camera array with adjacent fields of view can be manipulated using low-power warping and cropping techniques, and can be taped together to form a final image.
Claims20
A multiple camera system, comprising:
- a spherical front lens;
- and
- a set of cameras, each camera comprising an image sensor and a plurality of lenses enclosed within a lens module, each lens module comprising a first width at a front of the lens module and a second width greater than the first width at a rear of the lens module, each of the set of cameras configured to abut the spherical front lens and to capture an image representative of light passing through the spherical front lens, through the plurality of lenses of the camera, and incident upon the image sensor of the camera, the set of cameras configured to synchronously capture a set of images.
A multiple camera system, comprising:
- a spherical lens;
- and
- a set of cameras abutting the spherical lens, each camera comprising an image sensor and a corresponding set of one or more lenses, the set of cameras configured to synchronously capture a set of images, each image of the set of images representative of light incident upon an image sensor via the spherical lens and the corresponding set of lenses.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.