INFRARED LASER AUTOMATIC BORE-SIGHTING

摘要

Techniques are disclosed for automatically bore-sighting a laser-based optical device to a weapon or other apparatus to which the optical device may be mounted (or otherwise coupled). According to certain embodiments of the invention, a reflective element such as a retro-reflector can be located on a target, and the apparatus is sighted (or otherwise oriented) to the target. While the apparatus is thus sighted, a processing unit (or other control unit) of the laser-based optical device can manipulate a laser-steering assembly to scan the field of view of a camera of the laser-based optical device with a laser to determine where, in the field of view, the reflective element is located and how the laser-steering assembly is oriented. Hill-climbing and/or other peak-detection techniques can be used to make either or both of these determinations.

主权项

1. A method of automatically bore-sighting an optical device with another apparatus, the method comprising:
generating a laser beam with a laser of the optical device; performing a first scan of a field of view of a camera of the optical device by steering the laser beam across at least a first portion of the field of view of the camera; detecting an intensity of reflected laser light above a first threshold; and in response to detecting the intensity of the reflected laser light above the first threshold, determine:
a location, within the field of view of the camera, of the reflected laser light; andan orientation of the laser beam at which the intensity of the reflected laser light reaches a second threshold.