Biomimetic integrated optical sensor (BIOS) system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9906718-B2
Application number	US-201514701103-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 30, 2015
Priority date	Apr 30, 2014
Publication date	Feb 27, 2018
Grant date	Feb 27, 2018

Abstract

The subject invention includes a biomimetic integrated optical sensor system, based on the integration of a wide field-of-view (WFOV) miniature staring multi-aperture compound eye with a high-speed, low-cost, polarization and spectral selective liquid crystal (LC) filter array, a MWIR focal plane array (FPA), and a neural network processor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A biomimetic integrated spectral polarimetric imaging system comprising a wide field-of-view multi-aperture compound eye, said compound eye being a hemispherical dome with hexagonal imaging elements, and being coupled to MWIR fiber bundle arrays at an inlet and outlet respectively, wherein the MWIR fiber bundle arrays are chalcogenide glass cored and then integrated to a high-speed, polarized and spectral selective liquid crystal filter array, a MWIR focal plane array, and a neural network processor said hexagonal imaging elements having optimized MWIR light coupling efficiency to the MWIR fiber bundle arrays.

2. The biomimetic integrated spectral polarimetric imaging system of claim 1 wherein the polarization and spectral selective liquid crystal filter array are electro-optic tunable with speed in micro seconds and operating up to 90% transmission in the MWIR 3-5 micron band.

3. The biomimetic integrated spectral polarimetric imaging system of claim 1 having a spectral polarization controller constructed by adding a liquid crystal controllable polarization rotator, a quarter-wave switch, or a quarter-wave linear retarder, combined with a half-wave linear retarder with variable fast axis orientation, right before the commercially available LC spectral filter array.

4. The biomimetic integrated spectral polarimetric imaging system of claim 1 wherein electronic control is performed with neural network signal processing electronics.

5. A biomimetic integrated spectral polarimetric imaging system comprising a wide field-of-view multi-aperture compound eye, said compound eye being coupled to MWIR fiber bundle arrays at an inlet and outlet respectively, and then integrated to a high-speed, polarized and spectral selective liquid crystal filter array, a MWIR focal plane array, and a neural network processor, wherein the polarized and spectral selective liquid crystal filter array are electro-optic tunable with speed in micro seconds and operating up to 90% transmission in the MWIR 3-5 micron band.

6. The biomimetic integrated spectral polarimetric imaging system of claim 5 having a hemispherical dome with hexagonal imaging elements (HIO), said hexagonal imaging elements having optimized MWIR light coupling efficiency to the MWIR bundle arrays.

Assignees

• Luminit Llc

Inventors

• Xia Winston X
• Dimov Fedor I

Classifications

• G06N3/043

  based on fuzzy logic, fuzzy membership or fuzzy inference, e.g. adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems [ANFIS] · CPC title

• H04N23/60

  Control of cameras or camera modules · 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

• G02B13/06 Primary

  Panoramic objectives; So-called "sky lenses" {including panoramic objectives having reflecting surfaces} · CPC title

• H04N23/57

  Mechanical or electrical details of cameras or camera modules specially adapted for being embedded in other devices · CPC title