Systems and cameras for tilting a focal plane of a super-macro image

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12007671-B2
Application number	US-202218257110-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2022
Priority date	Jun 8, 2021
Publication date	Jun 11, 2024
Grant date	Jun 11, 2024

Abstract

Systems having a Wide/Ultra-Wide camera, a folded Tele camera with an optical path folding element and a Tele lens module, a lens actuator for moving the Tele lens module for focusing to object-lens distances between 3.0 cm and 35 cm with an object-to-image magnification between 1:5 and 25:1, and an application processor (AP), wherein the AP is configured to analyze image data from the UW camera to define a Tele capture strategy for a sequence of Macro images with a focal plane slightly shifted from one captured Macro image to another and to generate a new Macro image from this sequence, and wherein the focal plane and a depth of field of the new Macro image can be controlled continuously.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A camera, comprising:
an object side optical path folding element (O-OPFE) for folding a first optical path (OP1) to a second optical path (OP2);
a lens;
an image side optical path folding element (I-OPFE) for folding OP2 to a third optical path (OP3), wherein OP1 and OP2 and OP3 are perpendicular to each other;
an I-OPFE actuator; and
an image sensor with an image plane oriented parallel to a X-Y plane in an exemplary orthogonal XYZ coordinate system,
wherein the camera is a super-Macro (SM) camera and has a focal plane, wherein in a zero-tilt focal plane position the focal plane is parallel to a X-Z plane, wherein in a zero-tilt I-OPFE position the I-OPFE forms an angle of 45 degrees with both the X-axis and the Z-axis and is parallel to the Y-axis, wherein the I-OPFE actuator is operative to tilt the focal plane around a first focal plane rotation axis that is parallel to the Z-axis by rotational actuation of the I-OPFE around a first I-OPFE rotation axis that is parallel to the Y-axis, and/or to tilt the focal plane around a second focal plane rotation axis parallel to the X-axis by rotational actuation of the I-OPFE around a second I-OPFE rotation axis that is parallel to the zero-tilt I-OPFE position and perpendicular to the Y-axis.

2. The camera of claim 1 , wherein OP1 and OP3 are oriented parallel to the Y-axis and OP2 is oriented parallel to the X-axis, wherein the image sensor is oriented parallel to the X-Z plane, wherein the I-OPFE actuator is operative to tilt the focal plane around the first focal plane rotation axis by rotational actuation of the I-OPFE around a third I-OPFE rotation axis that is parallel to the Z-axis, and/or to tilt the focal plane around the second focal plane rotation axis by rotational actuation of the I-OPFE around a fourth I-OPFE rotation axis that is parallel to the zero-tilt I-OPFE position and perpendicular to the Z-axis.

3. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the SM camera is focused to object-lens distances of 3.0-15 cm.

4. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the SM camera is focused to object-lens distances of 15-50 cm.

5. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the focal plane is tilted by 0-20 degrees around the first focal plane rotation axis and/or the second focal plane rotation axis.

6. The camera of claim 5 , wherein the I-OPFE is tilted by 0-20 degrees around the first I-OPFE rotation axis or the third I-OPFE rotation axis for tilting the focal plane by 0-20 degrees around the first focal plane rotation axis, and/or the I-OPFE is tilted by 0-20 degrees around the second I-OPFE rotation axis or the fourth I-OPFE rotation axis for tilting the focal plane by 0-20 degrees around the second focal plane rotation axis.

7. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the focal plane is tilted by 0-40 degrees around the first focal plane rotation axis and/or the second focal plane rotation axis.

8. The camera of claim 7 , wherein the I-OPFE is tilted by 0-40 degrees around the first I-OPFE rotation axis or the third I-OPFE rotation axis for tilting the focal plane by 0-40 degrees around the first focal plane rotation axis and/or the I-OPFE is tilted by 0-40 degrees around the second I-OPFE rotation axis or the fourth I-OPFE rotation axis for tilting the focal plane by 0-40 degrees around the second focal plane rotation.

9. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the focal plane is tilted by 0-60 degrees around the first focal plane rotation axis and/or the second focal plane rotation axis.

10. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the focal plane is tilted by 0-80 degrees around the first focal plane rotation axis and/or the second focal plane rotation axis.

11. The camera of claim 1 , wherein calibration data is used to calculate control signals for tilting the focal plane around the first focal plane rotation axis and the second focal plane rotation axis, and wherein the calibration data is dependent on the distance between the SM camera and an object to be captured.

12. The camera of claim 1 , wherein a first rotation stroke around the first or the second or the third or the fourth I-OPFE rotation axis is required for tilting the focal plane around the first focal plane rotation axis or the second focal plane rotation axis by a particular focal plane tilt stroke when the focal plane is located at a first distance from the SM camera, wherein a second rotation stroke around the first or the second or the third or the fourth I-OPFE rotation angle is required for tilting the focal plane around the first focal plane rotation axis or the second focal plane rotation axis by the same particular focal plane tilt stroke when the focal plane is located at a second distance from the SM camera, wherein the second distance is larger than the first distance, and wherein the first rotation stroke is smaller than the second rotation stroke.

13. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the SM camera has an effective focal length of 7-10 mm.

14. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the SM camera has an effective focal length of 10-20 mm.

15. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the SM camera has an effective focal length of 20-40 mm.

16. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the I-OPFE actuator is a voice coil motor.

17. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the I-OPFE is a mirror.

18. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the O-OPFE is a prism.

19. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the lens is partitioned into two lens groups, wherein a first lens is located at an object side of the O-OPFE and a second lens group is located between an image side of the O-OPFE and an object side of the I-OPFE.

20. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the SM camera is a scanning camera that scans a scene with a respective SM field-of-view.

21. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the SM camera can be switched between two or more discrete zoom states.

22. The camera of claim 1 , wherein the SM camera can be switched continuously between a minimum zoom state and a maximum zoom state.

23. The camera of claim 1 , wherein a zoom factor of a maximum zoom state is twice a zoom factor of a minimum zoom state.

24. The camera of claim 1 , wherein a zoom factor of a maximum zoom state is 2 or more times larger than a zoom factor of a minimum zoom state.

25. A mobile device comprising the SM camera of claim 1 and including an application processor (AP) configured to control the tilting of the focal plane.

26. The mobile device of claim 25 , wherein the mobile device is a smartphone.

27. The mobile device of claim 25 , wherein the AP is configured to use calibration data including rotation angles of the first and/or the second and/or the third and/or the fourth I-OPFE rotation axes, and object-lens distances for controlling the tilting of the focal plane around the first and/or the second focal plane rotation axes.

28. The mobile device of claim 25 , wherein the AP is configured to control the tilting of the focal plane according to a user input.

29. The mobile device of claim 25 , wherein the AP is configured to run an algorithm to tilt the focal plane automatically.

30. The mobile device of claim 29 , wherein the focal plane is tilted so that an object of interest captured with the SM camera is entirely in-focus.

31. The mobile device of claim 29 , wherein the focal plane is tilted so that an object of interest captured with the SM camera has a specific amount of out-of-

Assignees

• Corephotonics Ltd

Inventors

• Cohen Noy
• Scherer Michael

Classifications

• G03B2205/0069

  using electromagnetic actuators, e.g. voice coils · CPC title

• G03B2205/0046

  Movement of one or more optical elements for zooming · CPC title

• G03B17/17

  with reflectors arranged in beam forming the photographic image, e.g. for reducing dimensions of camera · CPC title

• G03B5/00

  Adjustment of optical system relative to image or object surface other than for focusing · CPC title

• H04N23/55 Primary

  Optical parts specially adapted for electronic image sensors; Mounting thereof · CPC title