Alan B Silver

US Patent:

60696567, May 30, 2000

Filed:

Dec 17, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/982228

Inventors:

Alan G. Silver - Monroe NY

Assignee:

Raytheon Company - Lexington MA

International Classification:

H04N 5225

US Classification:

348169

Abstract:

A method of applying optical stabilization to the problem of laser designation is provided which simulates the action of a viscous damping mechanism while reducing the weight and cost of the tripod and angulation head used in laser designation applications on a tracking mount. A closed loop electro-optical system is utilized by a predictive filter and a slew filter which require only video output (28) representing a target (20) of interest for feedback. In addition, automatic tracking of a particular target (20) and automatic boresighting of a separable laser designator (14) to a sensor module (12) are provided. In an alternative embodiment, optical stabilization is used with a GPS module (82) in a sensor module (20), which transmits information representing the location of the target (20) to a projectile (84). The projectile (84) uses the information in maintaining its trajectory towards the target (20).

US Patent:

58747338, Feb 23, 1999

Filed:

Oct 16, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/951748

Inventors:

Alan G. Silver - Monroe NY
Henry Heinemann - Monsey NY

Assignee:

Raytheon Company - Lexington MA

International Classification:

G01D 534

US Classification:

25023118

Abstract:

A method of position encoding in convergent beam scanned imaging systems (10) is provided that reduces distortion. Distortion of a scanned image is introduced in convergent beam systems through the application of mirror "pullback" at the limits of the scanning sector, which is required to retain focus over the field of view or scanning sector. The rotational position of a scanner mirror (14) is not proportional to the spatial scanned angle or object space angle (. delta. ) due to this pullback, and thus introduces distortion. Various components of the pullback motion are utilized to provide the compensation required to overcome this distortion. A process is provided that determines the position of a mirror position detector such that the pullback translation motion of the scanner mirror (14) is used to compensate for the nonlinear rotational motion of the scanner mirror (14). This is accomplished by locating the mirror position detector (16) at a predetermined radial distance and angular position with respect to the scanner mirror (14) point of rotation and sensing the rotation of the scanner mirror (14) and pullback. By appropriately selecting the angular position of the mirror position detector (16) with respect to the scanner mirror (14) center of rotation and the direction of pullback, the output of the mirror position detector becomes a substantially linearized representation of the object space angle (. delta. ).