Ball with camera and trajectory control for reconnaissance or recreation

Abstract

A ball that provides normalized images of a ground-based target subject captured over the course of the arc of its airborne trajectory. The improvements include a processing unit that compiles multiple images into a smooth continuous fly-by video of the target subject, a processing unit that stitches multiple images captured at a single moment in the ball's trajectory into a panoramic image and further normalizes and compiles multiple panoramic images into a smooth, continuous fly-through video, and an embedded motion sensor to initiate operations when the ball is pitched, and an embedded impact sensor to shut down operations for power conservation, and a mass which forces the camera into a repeated spinning or precessing orbit around the core of the ball, and a wireless transmission of surveillance imagery captured by the ball, and ground-based transmission of the target subject's location for subsequent image capture, and means for capturing multiple images of varying viewpoints including a camera aperture connected to a branching collection of fused fiber optic bundles. Also disclosed are means for directing the ball along a controllable trajectory to move toward a ground-based target subject.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.