US 5,835,133 A · Optical system for single camera stereo video

Abstract

A mechanism and method for recording stereo video with standard camera system electronics and a uniquely adapted optical assembly is disclosed. The optical assembly comprises left and right optical channels disposed to capture and project separate left and right images onto a single image sensor such that the boundary between the projected images is sharply delineated with no substantial overlap or gap. The viewpoints of the left and right optical channels are separated by a distance, d, such that the captured images are differentiated to produce a stereo image pair. By proper disposition of the left and right optical channels, stereo image pairs exhibiting full stereo overlap without keystone distortion are obtained. One image of the stereo pair is produced for visualization by the left eye and the other image is produced for visualization by the right eye. Alternatively, the images can be interrogated by a computer system for generating three dimensional position data. The image sensor is scanned in a standard fashion such that the left and right images are sampled by the video sampling circuitry of the camera unit at substantially the same time. In one mode, a pair of anamorphic lenses compress the left and right images along the axis of the image sensor scan lines so that each video field represents a stereo pair of images at a substantially unity anamorphic ratio and at an aspect ratio substantially equal to that of the image sensor. In a another mode, a conventional (non-distorting) lens is utilized and each video frame represents a pair of images having an aspect ratio equal to one-half that of the image sensor. A stereo playback mechanism and method is also disclosed.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A camera for generating a stereo video signal, said camera comprising:

an image sensor responsive to an image projected thereon;
an optical assembly having first and second optical channels that include respective focusing lenses disposed to focus substantially coincident portions of respective fields of view of the first and second optical channels onto abutting regions of said image sensor;
and
a video generation circuit coupled to sample the abutting regions of said image sensor to generate said stereo video signal.

1 more element

In a video system, a method of displaying a three dimensional view, said method comprising the steps of:

positioning a first focusing lens in a first optical assembly to select a portion of a field of view of the first optical assembly:
positioning a second focusing lens in a second optical assembly to select a portion of a field of view of the second optical assembly, the portion of the field of view of the second optical assembly being substantially coincident with the portion of the field of view of the first optical assembly;
projecting the portions of the fields of view of the first and second optical assemblies onto respective abutting regions of an image sensor;
and sampling the abutting regions of the image sensor to generate a stereo video signal;
and
displaying a three dimensional view based on the stereo video signal.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Optical system for single camera stereo video

Life of this patent

Optical system for single camera stereo video

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19