Multi-Spectral Clip-On Sight for Degraded Lighting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing optical systems for enhancing vision, such as rifle sights and telescopes, perform poorly in degraded lighting environments, necessitating an apparatus and method that improves viewing capabilities in such conditions.
Innovation Solution
A multi-spectral clip-on architecture that includes a first sight for normal vision, a second sight for altering scene content in one manner, and a third sight for altering it in another manner, with an image combiner to combine these altered contents, providing enhanced viewing through unity magnification and minimal deviation of the apparent angle, incorporating night-time or infrared sensors for improved visibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single optical enhancement system is used, then the device complexity is reduced, but the viewing performance in degraded lighting conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The optical enhancement device incorporates multiple spectral channels (first spectral channel for day viewing, second spectral channel for night viewing, third spectral channel for infrared viewing) within a single system. This multi-functionality enables the device to adapt to different lighting conditions while maintaining a unified structure, resolving the contradiction between device simplicity and environmental adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically switches between different spectral channels based on lighting conditions. The controller activates the appropriate spectral channel (day, night, or infrared) according to environmental lighting, allowing the system to optimize viewing performance for current conditions while maintaining overall system simplicity through automated adaptation.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple spectral channels are integrated, then the adaptability to different lighting conditions improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple spectral channels are merged into a single optical enhancement device that integrates day viewing, night viewing, and infrared viewing capabilities. The image combiner merges images from different spectral channels, and the eyepiece combines these images into a unified view, reducing the need for separate devices while maintaining multi-condition adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
A single optical enhancement device performs multiple functions by incorporating different spectral channels. The device can operate in day viewing mode, night viewing mode, or infrared mode depending on lighting conditions, eliminating the need for multiple separate enhancement devices and thereby managing complexity through functional integration.
3Illumination intensity
If sensor-augmented views from multiple channels are combined, then the visibility in poor lighting conditions improves, but the processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
An image combiner serves as an intermediary device that receives images from different spectral channels and merges them into a single combined image. This intermediary component simplifies the processing architecture by providing a dedicated merging function, reducing the computational complexity required to integrate multiple sensor views while enhancing visibility through multi-spectral information fusion.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus and method improve sight. The apparatus includes a first sight configured to view a scene. A second sight is configured to alter content representative of the scene in a first manner to form first altered content. A third sight is configured to alter content representative of the scene in a second manner to form second altered content. An image combiner is configured to combine the second altered content with the first altered content to form combined altered scene content.