Self-correcting adaptive long-stare electro-optical system

摘要

An imaging platform minimizes image distortion when there is relative motion of the imaging platform with respect to the scene being imaged where the imaging platform may be particularly susceptible to distortion when it is configured with a wide field of view or high angular rate of movement, or when performing long-stares at a given scene (e.g., for nighttime and low-light imaging.) Distortion correction may be performed by predicting distortion due to the relative motion of the imaging platform, determining optical transformations to prevent the distortion, dynamically adjusting the optics of the imaging platform during exposure, and performing digital image correction.

主权项

1. A system configured to capture images, comprising:
an imaging platform configured to capture an image of a scene during an exposure period, the image being represented as a plurality of sub-frames; a distortion prediction processor configured to determine transformations to prevent image distortion caused by a relative motion between the scene and the imaging platform, and to determine residual transformations to correct residual image distortion; a controller configured to adjust an optical element based on the transformations to prevent the image distortion, the optical element being adjusted during each sub-frame in the plurality of sub-frames; and a digital correction processor configured to use the residual transformations to digitally process the plurality of sub-frames to compensate for the residual image distortion, the residual image distortion being different than the image distortion prevented by the optical element.