Panoramic lens
AssigneeNational Research Council of Canada
InventorIan Powell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A panoramic imaging system for projecting a 360 degree cylindrical field of view onto a two-dimensional annular format has a panoramic imaging block with a concentric axis of symmetry, two refractive surfaces and two reflective surfaces. The first reflective surface is a concave conicoid of revolution with the conic constant in the range from -0.6 to +2.0. In an embodiment of the invention, the second refractive surface (the last in the path of rays) is flat, while the first reflective surface, the second reflective surface and the first refractive surface are all spherical.
Claims9
A panoramic imaging block having a concentric axis of symmetry and comprising two refractive surfaces and two reflective surfaces disposed such as to allow light rays to enter the block through a first refractive surface, undergo reflection from the first reflective surface, the second reflective surface, and exit through the second refractive surface thereby to produce an annular image from a cylindrical field of view around the axis of symmetry, wherein the first reflective surface is an aspherical concave conicoid of revolution, the conic constant of which is in the range from -0.6 to +2.0.
A panoramic imaging system for projecting a cylindrical field of view onto a two-dimensional format comprising
- a panoramic imaging block having a concentric axis symmetry and comprising two refractive surfaces and two reflective surfaces disposed such as to allow light rays to enter the block through a first refractive surface, undergo reflection from the first reflective surface, the second reflective surface, and exit through the second refractive surface thereby to produce an annular image from a cylindrical field of view around the axis of symmetry, wherein the first reflective surface is an aspherical concave conicoid of revolution, the conic constant of which is in the range from -0.6 to +2.0, and
- a relay optical system of a double gauss design for transferring an intermediate image created by the imaging block to an accessible location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.