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US 7,397,540 B2Granted
Phase diversity ranging sensor
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsMark A. Lundgren, Jean J. Dolne
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system to determine the distance to an object includes one or more aberrating elements to introduce aberration into light from the object. Image data is obtained at two different focus conditions, and used to determine the object distance.
Claims20
An optical system comprising:
- an imaging lens positioned to receive light from an object;
- one or more aberrating elements configured and positioned in the optical path of the light to receive light from the imaging lens and configured to aberrate the light from the imaging lens to produce aberrated light by introducing astigmatism into the optical path;
- a detection system configured to receive aberrated light from the one or more aberrating elements at a first focus condition and a second focus condition and to generate information indicative of the aberrated light at the first focus condition and the second focus condition;
- and
- a processor system configured to receive the information indicative of the aberrated light at the first focus condition and information indicative of aberrated light at the second focus condition and to generate distance information therefrom.
2 more elements
A method of determining an object distance comprising:
- receiving light from an object via an imaging lens;
- introducing a pre-determined aberration to light received from the imaging lens to generate an aberrated wavefront by introducing astigmatism into the optical path;
- obtaining image data of the aberrated wavefront at a first focus condition aid a second different focus condition;
- determining the object distance using the image data at the first focus condition and the second focus condition.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.