Imaging system with multi-state zoom and associated methods
AssigneeDigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
InventorsGal Shabtay, David Mendlovic, Christopher Aubuchon, Kai Engelhardt
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Abstract
An image capturing device may include a detector including a plurality of sensing pixels, and an optical system adapted to project a distorted image of an object within a field of view onto the sensing pixels, wherein the optical system expands the image in a center of the field of view and compresses the image in a periphery of the field of view, wherein a first number of sensing pixels required to realize a maximal zoom magnification {circumflex over (Z)} at a minimum resolution of the image capturing device is less than a square of the maximal zoom magnification times a second number of sensing pixels required for the minimum resolution.
Claims18
An image capturing device, comprising:
- a detector including a plurality of sensing pixels;
- and
- an optical system having one or more optical elements disposable into at least two states,
- the at least two states of the optical system corresponding to at least two angular fields of view, respectively,
- the at least two states of the optical system projecting at least two distorted images onto the detector corresponding to the at least two angular fields of view, respectively, and
- distortion in a given distorted image manifesting as a significantly greater pixel density per field angle at a central portion of the given distorted image than at a peripheral portion thereof, wherein a first number of sensing pixels required to realize a maximal zoom magnification Zmax at a minimum resolution of the image capturing device is greater than a second number of pixels required for the minimum resolution and less than a square of the maximal zoom magnification Zmax times the second number of sensing pixels required for the minimum resolution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.