80 results about "Optical tracker" patented technology

An active protection system comprising an ultra wideband (UWB) radar for threat detection, an optical tracker for precision threat position measurement, and a high powered laser for threat kill or mitigation. The UWB radar may use a sparse array antenna and may also utilize Doppler radar information. The high powered laser may be of the optically pumped solid state type and in one embodiment may share optics with the optical tracker. In one embodiment, the UWB radar is used to focus the high power laser. Alternative interceptor type kill mechanisms are disclosed. In a further embodiment, the kill mechanism may be directed to the source of the threat. In a further embodiment, an antenna array is steered by using subarray groups having fixed timing within the group and variable timing from group to group.

An object tracker comprises: a source of light; at least one illumination waveguide optically coupled to said source continuing at least one grating lamina for diffracting said light towards an external object; at least one detector waveguide containing a grating lamina for in-coupling and deflecting a first polarization of light reflected from said object into a first waveguide direction and deflecting a second polarization of light reflected from said object into a second waveguide direction; at least one detector optically coupled to said detector waveguide operative to receive light propagating in said first waveguide direction; and at least one detector optically coupled to said detector waveguide operative to receive light propagating in said second waveguide direction.

An object tracker comprises: a source of light; at least one illumination waveguide optically coupled to said source continuing at least one grating lamina for diffracting said light towards an external object; at least one detector waveguide containing a grating lamina for in-coupling and deflecting a first polarization of light reflected from said object into a first waveguide direction and deflecting a second polarization of light reflected from said object into a second waveguide direction; at least one detector optically coupled to said detector waveguide operative to receive light propagating in said first waveguide direction; and at least one detector optically coupled to said detector waveguide operative to receive light propagating in said second waveguide direction.

An aircraft formation / refueling guidance system guides a follower aircraft relative to a leader aircraft. A datalink provides a position hold and a bias command from the leader aircraft to the follower aircraft. An optical tracker onboard the follower aircraft takes an image of the leader aircraft when receiving the hold command, tracks the leader aircraft using the image, and provides optical tracker movement outputs. A resolver resolves the optical tracker movement outputs to provide resolver control signals. A vernier control receives the bias command to change a position of the follower aircraft by biasing the resolver control signals with a bias signal. A sum circuit connected to the resolver and to the vernier control receives the resolver control signals and the bias signal to provide a sum circuit output signal. An autopilot and autothrottle receives the sum circuit output signal and the position hold command to control the follower aircraft.

An active protection system comprising an ultrawideband radar for threat detection, an optical tracker for precision threat position measurement, and a high powered laser for threat kill or mitigation. The uwb radar may use a sparse array antenna and may also utilize Doppler radar information. The high powered laser may be of the optically pumped solid state type and in one embodiment may share optics with the optical tracker. In one embodiment, the UWB radar is used to focus the high power laser. Alternative interceptor type kill mechanisms are disclosed. In a further embodiment, the kill mechanism may be directed to the source of the threat.

The present invention relates to a heat pipe type spherical disc type solar energy light and heat collector, belonging to the solar energy heat collection establishment technical field, which includesa spherical reflecting mirror disposed on the solar energy optical tracker system and a steam drum supported above the reflecting mirror. The steam drum is made up of an inlet and an outlet and stored up with working medium. A heat pipe type vacuum heat collecting pipe is arranged on the focusing part of the spherical reflecting mirror. The heating zone of the heat pipe type vacuum heat collecting pipe is positioned on the condensing wimble of the spherical reflecting mirror. The cooling zone of the heat pipe type vacuum heat collecting pipe is inserted into the working medium of the stream drug. The invention has simple technology, low cost, scientific design and easy to generalization and application. It has been found that the invention has fast tempera the rise, excellent heating effect, high efficiency, suitable for large scale industrialization production, secure and reliable performance.

There is provided an object tracker having: a first waveguide; a source of illumination light; a detector optically coupled to the waveguide; and at least one grating lamina formed within the waveguide. Illumination light propagating along a first optical path from the source to an object in relative motion to the object tracker. Image light reflected from at least one surface of an object is deflected by the grating lamina into a second optical path towards the detector.

A passive electro-optical tracker uses a two-band IR intensity ratio to discriminate high-speed projectiles and obtain a speed estimate from their temperature, as well as determining the trajectory back to the source of fire. In an omnidirectional system a hemispheric imager with an MWIR spectrum splitter forms two CCD images of the environment. Three methods are given to determine the azimuth and range of a projectile, one for clear atmospheric conditions and two for nonhomogeneous atmospheric conditions. The first approach uses the relative intensity of the image of the projectile on the pixels of a CCD camera to determine the azimuthal angle of trajectory with respect to the ground, and its range. The second calculates this angle using a different algorithm. The third uses a least squares optimization over multiple frames based on a triangle representation of the smeared image to yield a real-time trajectory estimate.

A system and method for improved ultrasound strain imaging includes using data from a tracking system to enhance the quality of ultrasound strain image and to reduce the dependency of image quality of the user's expertise. The tracking information is synchronized with the RF frames and interpolated to find the transformation corresponding to each frame. The RF frames with their transformations are incorporated into calculation of ultrasound strain images. The tracking system may be an optical tracker, electromagnetic tracker, accelerometer, or a structured light system. The structured light system may also be used for probe calibration, by calibrating the surface of the probe pre-operatively. In addition, a relative Young's Modulus may be calculated using tracking information that is independent from the distribution of input force.

A passive electro-optical tracker uses a two-band IR intensity ratio to discriminate high-speed projectiles and obtain a time-varying speed estimate from their time-varying temperature, as well as determining the trajectory back to the source of fire. In an omnidirectional system a hemispheric imager with an MWIR spectrum splitter forms two CCD images of the environment. Various methods are given to determine the azimuth and range of a projectile, both for clear atmospheric conditions and for nonhomogeneous atmospheric conditions. One approach uses the relative intensity of the image of the projectile on the pixels of a CCD camera to determine the azimuthal angle of trajectory with respect to the ground, and its range. A second uses a least squares optimization over multiple frames based on a triangle representation of the smeared image to yield a real-time trajectory estimate.

The invention relates to an operation positioning device, a positioning system and a positioning method. The positioning device comprises a support, wherein over three light reflection balls used to reflect infrared light and over four positioning points which are lighttight to X-ray light are disposed on the support. According to the invention, the light reflection balls and the positioning points are disposed on the support at the same time; the light reflection balls are used to reflect infrared light and can be recognized by an optical tracker; the positioning points can be scanned and recognized by three-dimensional imaging equipment; a technological foundation is laid for image registration; and more importantly, the device provided by the invention has a high integration degree and a small size and is applicable to the positioning system which takes spiral CT as imaging equipment.

Systems and processes are provided that utilize the accuracy and adaptability of an optical tracking system to track an object by maintaining a line of sight (LOS) between the optical signals from the tracked object and the optical receivers regardless of the position and orientation of the object being tracked. LOS is maintained without having to manually adjust a tracked device or the optical receivers, or be limited to a specified working volume. Instead, whenever the tracked device moves, an active controller device calculates new values for the degrees of freedom of a series of joints holding a tracking array to the tracked object to position and orient the tracking array to maintain visibility to the optical receivers. A computer-assisted or robotic device that decreases operating times, and improves surgical accuracy, without additional user requirements or adjustments to maintain the LOS of the optical tracking system is provided.

The invention discloses a quick and intelligent acquisition system for dimensions of rail transit infrastructures. The system is composed of a laser range finder, an infrastructure type identification device and a laser point cloud collection system. The laser range finder tracks and measures distance information of infrastructures in real time. The infrastructure type identification device is used for obtaining design parameter information of the infrastructures. And the laser point cloud collection system consists of an industrial robot, a laser scanner and an optical tracker; the industrial robot drives the laser scanner to dynamically obtain laser point cloud data of the surfaces of the infrastructures; and the optical tracker tracks the laser scanner and provides real-time spatial position and attitude information for the laser scanner. In addition, the invention also discloses a dimension offset detection system and detection method of rail transit infrastructures. According to the detection method, no detecting person intervention is needed; and automatic, intelligent and informationized detection of large infrastructures like a ballastless track slab can be realized. Compared with the prior art, the provided detection method enables the efficiency to be improved by over five times and the detection precision to be improved by one magnitude order.

The invention discloses a method and a device for calibrating multiple sensors on a pair of motion capture gloves, and the pair of motion capture gloves. The multiple sensors comprise an optical tracker and a first inertia measurement unit. The method comprises the following steps that: independently collecting the position information of the optical tracker under an optical coordinate system andthe gesture information of the first inertia measurement unit under an inertia coordinate system under a plurality of motions of the motion capture gloves; and according to the position information ofthe optical tracker under the optical coordinate system and the gesture information of the first inertia measurement unit under the inertia coordinate system under the plurality of motions, calibrating the optical tracker and the first inertia measurement unit.

A method of registering a camera of a surgical navigation system for an augmented reality which realizes an augmented reality with lowered error range is disclosed. The method of registering the camera of the surgical navigation system for the augmented reality enables single person to do the work by calculating and adjusting the coordinate of the optical center of the camera by moving the optical tracker, the camera, or the pattern board with a second marker attached on the pattern board, not manually attached on the pattern board. And, there is an effect of improving accuracy and safety of a surgery by realizing an augmented reality without generating an accumulated error by the second marker, since the spatial coordinate of the second marker attached on the pattern board maintains uniform.

An optical tracker system is provided for tracking a location and orientation of a first object. The system includes a prediction module configured to determine a predicted location and orientation of the first object as a spatial prediction; a display module configured to generate display commands for a fiducial symbol based on the spatial prediction; a display unit configured to display the fiducial symbol based on the display commands; a camera unit configured to capture an image of the fiducial symbol displayed on the display device as a captured appearance; and a position determination module coupled to the camera unit and configured to receive the image from camera unit. The position determination module is configured to identify the fiducial symbol and determine the location and the orientation of the first object based on the captured appearance of the fiducial symbol.

An automated system which uses visual tracking technology to monitor the visual direction of a driver's sight, functions to keep the driver's eyes on the road to reduce the danger of potential distractions. When the driver is not looking at the road for a predetermined period, an audio queue, such as a beeping or alarm, will be utilized to bring the driver's attention back to the road. In addition, the system can limit the use of cell phones in the vehicle by disabling cell phones when the driver looks away from the road for greater than a preselected predetermined period. The period can be adjusted to allow for the answering of a hands free phone call, but preventing dialing and texts. The apparatus for alerting the driver includes an optical tracker, a receiver, a processor, and an audible alert device.

The invention discloses an orthopaedic navigation and positioning system and method, and the system comprises a mechanical arm which is provided with an actuator and a tracer at the tail end; a precision verification device which is used for cooperating with the C-arm machine and the optical tracker to verify and optimize the navigation precision of the system; an optical tracker which is used for collecting the position of the tracer on each device and obtaining the position information of the corresponding device; a C-arm machine which is used for scanning to generate a preoperative 3D image and registering the preoperative 3D image with the intraoperative 2D perspective image; and an upper computer which is used for planning a path according to the preoperative 3D image, controlling the mechanical arm to move to a target position after the preoperative 3D image is registered with the intraoperative 2D perspective image, and carrying out an operation. By means of precise positioning, the operation precision of a person and a mechanical arm can be maximized, wounds of a patient are reduced, meanwhile, the operation process can be accelerated, and radiation borne by doctors and the patient is reduced.

The invention discloses a global optimum optical tracker pose calculation method. According to the method, a traditional tracker pose calculation method is improved, a mathematical model based on a global optimization thought is used, a corresponding relation between space points and image points is used to construct a system of linear equations, it is not needed to calculate the pose of a tracker relative to a single base station or perform pose data fusion, and a global optimum pose of the tracker can be directly solved. Through the method, the quantity of base stations is not limited, information of corresponding points of all base stations is fully utilized (even if the quantity of the corresponding points of a certain base stations is not enough for independent calculation of the pose), and the minimum calculation condition of the pose of the tracker is greatly lowered (the threshold value of the quantity of the corresponding points is lowered from at least five groups of corresponding points of any base station to totally four groups of corresponding points of all the base stations); and besides, when multiple receivers establish connection with the tracker, a global optimum pose fusion result can be obtained, and the result is more precise and higher in robustness.

A method of registering a camera of a surgical navigation system for an augmented reality which realizes an augmented reality with lowered error range is disclosed. The method of registering the camera of the surgical navigation system for the augmented reality enables single person to do the work by calculating and adjusting the coordinate of the optical center of the camera by moving the optical tracker, the camera, or the pattern board with a second marker attached on the pattern board, not manually attached on the pattern board. And, there is an effect of improving accuracy and safety of a surgery by realizing an augmented reality without generating an accumulated error by the second marker, since the spatial coordinate of the second marker attached on the pattern board maintains uniform.

Systems and methods of tracking the position of an endoscope within a patient's body during an endoscopic procedure is disclosed. The devices and methods include determining a position of the endoscope within the patient in the endoscope's coordinate system, capturing in an image fiducial markers attached to the endoscope by an external optical tracker, transforming the captured fiducial markers from the endoscope's coordinate system to the optical tracker's coordinate system, projecting a virtual image of the endoscope on a model of the patient's organ, and projecting or displaying the combined image.

The system for camera control in robotic and laparoscopic surgery (100) includes a head tracking system (130) for tracking movements of an operator's head during laparoscopic surgery, a robotic laparoscope holder (110) operatively engaged to a laparoscope (200), an interface workstation (120) having a processor (540) and inputs connecting the sensor signal and the servo control system (515) signals to the processor (540), and a clutch switch (180) connected to the processor (540) for activating and inactivating the interface workstation (120). The head tracking system (130) includes at least one optical marker (415) to be worn on the operator's head and an optical tracker (410) for detecting movement of the at least one optical marker (415) and transmitting a corresponding sensor signal. The laparoscope includes an articulating distal portion (214), a tip (216), and a camera (150) disposed at the tip (150).

The invention relates to the technical field of medical equipment, and discloses an optomagnetic integrated locating and tracking device. The device comprises a base, an optical tracker, an electromagnetic tracker and an electromagnetic connector, the optical tracker and the electromagnetic tracker are installed on the base, and the electromagnetic connector is connected with the electromagnetic tracker through a wire. According to the optomagnetic integrated locating and tracking device, the optical tracker and the electromagnetic tracker are integrated, so that both optical locating and tracking and electromagnetic locating and tracking can be adopted.

The invention discloses a parameter verification device, system and method for a special-shaped machined part. The device comprises a positioning part which is provided with a bearing body which is arranged in an inclined manner, wherein the bearing body bears a first tracer; and a verification part which is arranged on the bearing body. According to the invention, the parameter verification device is installed on an inclined plane instead of being installed on a vertical plane in the prior art, and the inclined plane of the parameter verification device provided by the invention can be parallel to an optical tracker, so that the optical tracker can be aligned at the tracer on the optical tracker. According to the parameter verification method for the special-shaped machined part, the accuracy problem of the measurement precision after an operating device is installed at the tail end of a mechanical arm is solved, and the stability and reliability of the system precision are guaranteed.

The invention relates to an endoscope calibration system and method. The endoscope calibration system includes an endoscope module, a calibration target module, and an optical tracking module, wherein the endoscope module includes a front end of the endoscope module, and an endoscope camera located in an endoscope camera channel; the calibration target module is a calibration plate such as a flat plate with an equally-spaced solid circle array pattern or a flat plate with a checkerboard pattern; the optical tracking module includes an optical tracker positioned at the front end of the endoscope, an optical tracker attached to a calibration target, and an optical position sensor. The invention also relates to an endoscope calibration method. According to the invention, the endoscope calibration can be carried out effectively, conveniently and accurately, and the working channels of the endoscope cannot be occupied additionally. The endoscope calibration system and method can be used for the real-time surgical navigation.

A six degree-of-freedom optical tracker system includes LEDs that are mounted on a structure, and are each configured to emit light. An LED controller is coupled to the LEDs and supplies drive current to each of the LEDs in a manner that causes the LEDs to sequentially and individually emit light. A single position sensing device that is spaced apart from each of the LEDs receives the light emitted from each of the LEDs and supplies position data for each LED. A processor receives the position data and determines the position and orientation of the structure relative to the single position sensing device.

An optical tracker is provided herein. The tracker may include at least two optical tracker sensors, facing at least partially each other. Each optical tracker sensor may include: a pixel array sensor configured to generate a pixel-by-pixel stream of values representing a scene; at least one visual indicator physically coupled to said pixel array sensor; and an integrated circuit (IC) physically coupled to said at least one pixel array sensor, and configured to: receive said pixel-by-pixel stream of values; and apply a binary large object (BLOB) analysis to said stream, to yield BLOB parameters indicative of the at least one visual indicator present in the scene in a single pass of the pixels representing the scene; and a computer processor configured to receive said BLOB parameters and calculate a relative position and / or orientation, or a partial data thereof, of the at least two optical tracker sensors.

Systems and processes are provided that utilize the accuracy and adaptability of an optical tracking system to track an object by maintaining a line of sight (LOS) between the optical signals from the tracked object and the optical receivers regardless of the position and orientation of the object being tracked. LOS is maintained without having to manually adjust a tracked device or the optical receivers, or be limited to a specified working volume. Instead, whenever the tracked device moves, an active controller device calculates new values for the degrees of freedom of a series of joints holding a tracking array to the tracked object to position and orient the tracking array to maintain visibility to the optical receivers. A computer-assisted or robotic device that decreases operating times, and improves surgical accuracy, without additional user requirements or adjustments to maintain the LOS of the optical tracking system is provided.