Adjustable variable resolution inspection systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10175177-B2
Application number	US-201514749545-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 24, 2015
Priority date	Jan 30, 2012
Publication date	Jan 8, 2019
Grant date	Jan 8, 2019

Abstract

Camera heads configured to provide digitally articulated images or video, at adjustable resolutions and/or offsets and orientations, to a camera control unit (CCU) or other electronic computing system for display, storage, and/or transmission to other systems are disclosed.

First claim

We claim:

1. A pipe inspection camera head, comprising:
a body;
a sensor module for sensing a condition associated with the body;
an electronic imaging element, including an image sensor and associated optics, disposed in the body, the image sensor configured to:
capture a first image, at a first resolution, covering a first field of view; and
generate, based on the sensed condition, a second image comprising ones of a plurality of tiled images corresponding to tiled subsets of the first field of view, wherein the second image has a second resolution different from the first resolution; and
an electronics module configured to:
convert the first image to a first analog signal;
provide a first visual output corresponding to the first analog signal to a camera control unit (CCU) at the first resolution;
extract the second image comprising the plurality of tiled images;
convert the second image to a second analog signal; and
provide a second visual output corresponding to the second analog signal to the CCU at the second resolution.

2. The camera head of claim 1 , further comprising a second electronic imaging element disposed in the body, wherein a field of view of the imaging element overlaps with a field of view of the second imaging element.

3. The camera head of claim 2 , wherein optical axes of the imaging element and the second imaging element are non-parallel.

4. The camera head of claim 3 , wherein optical axes of the imaging element and the second imaging element are divergent.

5. The camera head of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of additional imaging elements.

6. The camera head of claim 5 , wherein the imaging element is oriented along a camera head centerline, and wherein additional imaging elements are oriented with outward divergent optical axes relative to the imaging element.

7. The camera head of claim 5 , wherein optical axes of ones of the plurality of additional imaging elements are non-parallel.

8. The camera head of claim 7 , wherein optical axes of ones of the plurality of additional imaging element are divergent.

9. The camera head of claim 1 , further including a lighting element to project a light marker on an area being viewed by the camera head.

10. The camera head of claim 9 , wherein the lighting element is a laser.

11. The camera head of claim 1 , wherein the second resolution is higher than the first resolution.

12. The camera head of claim 1 , wherein the second visual output is provided as a zoomed-in field of view relative to the first visual output.

13. The camera head of claim 1 , wherein the condition corresponds to a motion of the camera head.

14. The camera head of claim 13 , wherein motion is a stop motion.

15. The camera head of claim 13 , wherein motion is a speed threshold.

16. The camera head of claim 13 , wherein motion is a start motion.

17. A pipe inspection system, comprising:
a camera control unit (CCU);
a camera head including:
a camera head body;
a sensor module configured to s2010ense a condition associated with the body;
an electronic image sensor disposed in the body, the image sensor configured to: capture a first image, at a first resolution, covering a first field of view; and
generate, based on the sensed condition, a second image comprising ones of a plurality of tiled images corresponding to tiled subsets of the first field of view, wherein the second image has a second resolution different from the first resolution; and
an electronics module configured to:
convert the first image to a first analog signal;
provide a first visual output corresponding to the first analog signal to a camera control unit (CCU) at the first resolution;
extract the second image comprising the plurality of tiled images;
convert the second image to a second analog signal; and
provide a second visual output corresponding to the second analog signal to the CCU at the second resolution;
a transmission media to carry the analog signals from the camera head to the CCU;
wherein the CCU includes:
a CCU body;
an electronics module configured to receive and process analog signals including image or video data provided from the camera head;
an electronics module configured to extract the image or video data from the analog signals; and
a CCU processing module configured to interpret the analog signal being received, or a translated version of the analog signal, and format data contained therein for display, storage, and/or transmission.

18. The pipe inspection system of claim 17 , wherein the second resolution is higher than the first resolution.

19. The pipe inspection system of claim 17 , wherein the sensor module comprises an accelerometer.

Assignees

• Olsson Mark S
• Powell Scott A
• Bench Stephanie M
• Merewether Ray
• Cox David A
• Chapman Eric M
• Seescan Inc

Inventors

• Olsson Mark S
• Powell Scott A
• Bench Stephanie M
• Merewether Ray
• Cox David A
• Chapman Eric M

Classifications

• H04N23/51

  Housings · CPC title

• H04N25/443

  by reading pixels from selected two-dimensional [2D] regions of the array, e.g. for windowing or digital zooming · CPC title

• H04N23/45

  for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images · CPC title

• H04N23/58

  Means for changing the camera field of view without moving the camera body, e.g. nutating or panning of optics or image sensors · CPC title

• H04N23/555

  for picking-up images in sites, inaccessible due to their dimensions or hazardous conditions, e.g. endoscopes or borescopes · CPC title