LCOS Pixel Mapping for 3CCD Camera Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing 3CCD cameras face challenges in aligning their separate CCD sensors, leading to issues like color fringing, blurriness, and reduced resolution due to misalignment, which current calibration methods using custom lenses are costly and difficult to implement.
Innovation Solution
Utilize a liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) device to optically map pixel planes of CCD sensors, allowing simultaneous alignment verification through frame-differencing of light patterns, eliminating the need for custom lenses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a custom lens is used for calibration and alignment, then alignment verification can be performed, but the device becomes expensive and difficult to manufacture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a standard lens to create an optical copy or projection of the alignment pattern onto the CCD sensors. Instead of requiring a custom lens for each camera, a standard lens projects a reference pattern that can be captured and analyzed, eliminating the need for expensive custom optical components while maintaining alignment verification capability
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs a standard lens that can be used across multiple 3CCD camera units rather than requiring a dedicated custom lens for each device. This universal component performs the alignment verification function universally, reducing manufacturing complexity and cost while maintaining measurement precision
2Measurement precision
If a custom lens is used for alignment, then alignment can be verified, but the device complexity increases due to short depth of focus requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system projects a reference alignment pattern through the standard lens onto the CCD sensors and captures this optical copy for analysis. This copying approach allows alignment verification without requiring precise manual focusing, as the projected pattern provides a clear reference that can be analyzed even with standard depth of focus characteristics
Solution Approach 2:
The alignment verification system uses the camera's own imaging capability to capture and analyze the projected alignment pattern. The standard lens and imaging system work together self-sufficiently, eliminating the need for complex external focusing mechanisms or specialized optical components with extended depth of focus
3Device complexity
If a single beam is used for calibration, then the setup is simple, but multiple spots cannot be verified simultaneously requiring beam movement
Solution Approach 1:
The alignment verification process is segmented into multiple discrete alignment patterns or features that are projected simultaneously onto different regions of the CCD sensors. Each pattern element can be independently analyzed, allowing multiple verification points to be checked at once without moving the beam or repeating the process
Solution Approach 2:
The invention combines multiple alignment verification functions into a single projection step. By projecting a comprehensive alignment pattern that includes multiple reference points and features simultaneously, the system merges what would otherwise require sequential beam movement and multiple capture operations into one efficient verification process
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Provides a cost-effective and efficient method to align CCD sensors, ensuring accurate color representation and high-resolution imaging by correcting positional and orientational misalignments without the limitations of custom lenses.
Implementation Method 1
a liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) device to optically map pixel planes of CCD sensors
Implementation Method 2
casting a collimated light source through the LCOS controlled to be disposed in a first pattern
Data Source
AI summary
A method for verifying alignment of image sensors of a CCD camera, the method including casting a collimated light source through an LCOS controlled to be disposed in a first pattern, onto the image sensors to form a second pattern on each of the image sensors, the LCOS disposed between a collimated light source and the CCD camera, frame-differencing the first pattern with the second pattern of each of the image sensors to result in a differencing result for each of the image sensors, and adjusting at least one of an orientation and a position of one of the image sensors if the differencing result for the one of the image sensors is non-zero, to result in an optical mapping of pixel cells of the LCOS and pixel cells of each of the image sensors.