| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 250203200 | Target illuminated by artificial light source | 19 |
| 20090314925 | FIBER OPTIC TRACKING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRACKING - A fiber optic tracking system for tracking substantially rigid object(s) is described. The fiber optic tracking system includes a light source, an optical fiber having a sensing component configured to modify optical signals from the light source, the optical fiber being configured to attach to the substantially rigid object, a detection unit arranged to receive the modified optical signals from the sensing component, and a calculation unit configured to determine a pose of the substantially rigid object in six degrees of freedom based on the modified optical signals. | 12-24-2009 |
| 20100108859 | Sensor for eye-safe and body-fixed semi-active laser guidance - A sensor for laser spot trackers. The novel sensor includes a detector array comprised of a predetermined number of subsets, each subset including a plurality of detector elements, and a readout circuit for providing a first output and a second output, the first output including subset signals that represent the total energy received in each subset and the second output including signals representing energy received by each individual detector element. In an illustrative embodiment, the array is divided into four subsets and the first output includes four subset signals that are compatible with four-quadrant guidance systems. A subset signal is generated by thresholding signals received from each individual detector element to remove noise, and then summing the thresholded signals from each detector element in the subset. | 05-06-2010 |
| 20100176270 | Volumetric error compensation system with laser tracker and active target - A volumetric error compensation measurement system and method are disclosed wherein a laser tracker tracks an active target as the reference point. The active target has an optical retroreflector mounted at the center of two motorized gimbals to provide full 360 degree azimuth rotation of the retroreflector. A position sensitive detector is placed behind an aperture provided at the apex of the retroreflector to detect the relative orientation between the tracker laser beam and the retroreflector by measuring a small portion of the laser beam transmitted through the aperture. The detector's output is used as the feedback for the servo motors to drive the gimbals to maintain the retroreflector facing the tracker laser beam at all times. The gimbals are designed and the position of the retroreflector controlled such that the laser tracker always tracks to a pre-defined single point in the active target, which does not move in space when the gimbals and/or the retroreflector makes pure rotations. Special mechanism and alignment algorithm are used in the gimbal design and retroreflector centering alignment to achieve accurate rotational axis alignment and repeatability. | 07-15-2010 |
| 20100282942 | HIGH ENERGY LASER BEAM DIRECTOR SYSTEM AND METHOD - A beam director subsystem and method for use in a weapons system. The beam director subsystem includes a source of electromagnetic radiation for generating a high energy laser (HEL) beam. The electromagnetic radiation is directed to a secondary mirror that reflects the electromagnetic radiation to a primary mirror for output of the HEL beam. The secondary mirror is generally curved and expands the electromagnetic radiation received from the source prior to outputting the HEL beam from the primary mirror. The subsystem further includes a track telescope coupled to the housing. The track telescope has a track detector configured to receive electromagnetic radiation originating from the HEL and electromagnetic radiation emitted from an illuminator and reflected from an airborne target. | 11-11-2010 |
| 20110084195 | OFF-AXIS REFLECTIVE TRANSMIT TELESCOPE FOR A DIRECTED INFRARED COUNTERMEASURES (DIRCM) SYSTEM - An off-axis reflective transmit telescope for a DIRCM system is mounted on the gimbal along a transmit-axis offset laterally from the optical axis of the receive telescope but nominally aligned with the line-of-sight of the receive telescope to transmit a laser beam. The telescope comprises an optical port optically coupled to a laser to receive and direct the laser beam away from the dome and a reflective optical assembly that reflects the laser beam through the dome. The reflective optical assembly comprises an off-axis mirror segment and a second optical element that together precompensate the laser beam for dome aberrations induced by the lateral offset of the transmit telescope's transmit axis from the optical axis. The off-axis mirror segment comprises a segment of a parent mirror having an aspheric curvature (e.g. parabolic, elliptical or higher-order asphere) about an axis of symmetry. The segment is offset so that it is not centered on the axis of symmetry of the parent mirror. The use of the off-axis mirror segment allows the optical port and any folding mirror to be positioned so that they do not obscure the reflected laser beam. The second optical element may be a segment of a dome corrector parent lens, a prism or a refractive lens formed on the front surface of the off-axis minor segment. | 04-14-2011 |
| 20110121159 | PORTABLE INTEGRATED LASER OPTICAL TARGET TRACKER - A portable integrated laser optical target tracker and designator (PILOTT device) in a single housing is provided having a laser designator assembly to produce a focused laser beam that is projected from the housing. A laser energy detector is located in the housing that detects reflected laser energy from any designation source (ground or airborne based), provides steering information, decodes the laser's frequency, and is used as a range finding receiver. The location of the laser energy provides automatic field alignment of the laser designator. An optical magnification scope is mounted in the housing and has an optical field of view that is parallel to and aligned with a beam path defined by the laser beam focusing optics. Any night scope can be added to the system to provide night situational awareness by being shown in the display. A visual electronic display is overlaid with the optical field of view. A main controller communicates with the controller of the laser energy detector and the visual electronic display, as well as a user input in order to control the PILOTT device. This allows the laser designation location to be displayed in the optical field of view, along with other data, for spotting, ranging and/or marking a designated target. | 05-26-2011 |
| 20110226932 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TARGETING DIRECTED ENERGY DEVICES - Systems and methods for targeting a directed energy system are provided. A particular system includes a first laser and a second laser. The system also includes a scanning system coupled to the first laser and the second laser. The scanning system is adapted to movably direct the second laser in a pattern around a pointing location of the first laser. | 09-22-2011 |
| 20120074295 | Transparent Silicon Detector and Multimode Seeker Using the Detector - A laser energy detector may include at least one photodetector device formed on a semiconductor substrate. The photodetector device may have an active area effective to detect laser energy at a laser wavelength. The active area of the laser energy detector may be substantially transparent for a first wavelength band within an infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120228469 | POSITION REFERENCE SENSOR - A position reference sensor for a marine vessel comprises an optical assembly including a pulsed laser device for emitting laser light, a lens arrangement comprising a lenticular lens for producing a vertically fanned beam (18) of the laser light emitted by the pulsed laser device and a photodiode ( | 09-13-2012 |
| 20130037694 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USING GESTURES TO CONTROL A LASER TRACKER - A method for optically communicating, from a user to a laser tracker, a command to control tracker operation includes providing a rule of correspondence between commands and temporal patterns, and selecting by the user a first command. Also, projecting a first light from the tracker to the retroreflector, reflecting a second light from the retroreflector, the second light being a portion of the first light, obtaining first sensed data by sensing a third light which is a portion of the second light, creating by the user, between first and second times, a first temporal pattern which includes a decrease in the third optical power followed by an increase in the third optical power, the first temporal pattern corresponding to the first command, determining the first command based on processing the first sensed data per the rule of correspondence and executing the first command with the tracker. | 02-14-2013 |
| 20130153745 | DIGITAL SEMI-ACTIVE LASER RECEIVER TRACKING OF MULTIPLE LINE-OF-SIGHT (LOS) OBJECTS - A digital SAL receiver implements a multiobject tracking method to detect EM pulses transmitted by a known source at a pulse repetition interval (PRI) and returned off of a target object to acquire multiple tracks. Intra and inter track temporal information is used to associate pulses with different tracks and to rank the tracks in order to designate a primary track for the target object. | 06-20-2013 |
| 20160011303 | LASER TRACKER CALIBRATION SYSTEM AND METHODS | 01-14-2016 |
| 20160085066 | Device and Method for Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System Photonic Switch - In one embodiment, a method of aligning mirrors of a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) photonic switch includes illuminating a first group of photodiodes associated with a first mirror of a first mirror array of the MEMS photonic switch by a first control beam during a first period of time and illuminating a second group of photodiodes associated with a second mirror of the first mirror array by a second control beam during a second period of time, where the second control beam is off during the first period of time, where the first control beam is off during the second period of time, and where the second period of time is after the first period of time. The method also includes illuminating the first group of photodiodes by the first control beam during a third period of time, where the second control beam is off during the third period of time, and where the third period of time is after the second period of time. | 03-24-2016 |
| 20160097834 | DEVICE AND METHOD FOR POSITIONING A STAR TRACKER ON A STRUCTURE - A device for positioning a functional trihedron of a star tracker in a reference trihedron tied to a structure on which the star tracker is mounted comprises: a fixing interface to connect the device to the star tracker, a set of geometric markers configured to, by means of an optical measurement instrument tied to the structure, position a marker tied to the device in the reference marker tied to the structure, an optical simulator comprising a set of optical markers to be measured by the star tracker, making it possible to position the functional trihedron of the star tracker in the trihedron tied to the device, the measurements of position of the functional trihedron in the trihedron tied to the device, and of position of the trihedron tied to the device in the reference trihedron, making it possible to position by calculation the functional trihedron in the reference trihedron. | 04-07-2016 |
| 20160139249 | LOW POWER LASER SENSING - The presently disclosed subject matter includes a laser system and a respective method of detecting a signal reflected from a target illuminated by a modulated CW light source configured to generate a modulated laser signal at a predefined modulation frequency. A signal comprising true laser signal portions reflected from said target, and noise is received; the signal is filtered for selecting laser signal portions at a modulation frequency band; and the true signal portions in the signal are detected, if the energy at the modulation frequency band is greater than a given threshold. | 05-19-2016 |
| 20160161221 | TARGET LOCATION DESIGNATION APPARATUS - Apparatus and method are disclosed for guiding a payload to a target location. The apparatus comprises a laser radiation source, a laser radiation reflecting arrangement for generating substantially spatially homogeneous reflected laser radiation, an activator for activating the radiation source to generate laser radiation and an electrical power source for powering the apparatus. | 06-09-2016 |
| 20160161587 | ASYNCHRONOUS PULSE DETECTION THROUGH SEQUENTIAL TIME SAMPLING OF OPTICALLY SPREAD SIGNALS - A method to spread laser photon energy over separate pixels to improve the likelihood that the total sensing time of all the pixels together includes the laser pulse. The optical signal is spread over a number of pixels, N, on a converter array by means of various optical components. The N pixels are read out sequentially in time with each sub-interval short enough that the integration of background photons competing with the laser pulse is reduced. Likewise, the pixel read times may be staggered such that laser pulse energy will be detected by at least one pixel during the required pulse interval. The arrangement of the N pixels may be by converter array column, row, two dimensional array sub-window, or any combination of sub-windows depending on the optical path of the laser signal and the capability of the ROIC control. | 06-09-2016 |
| 20160178348 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FOLLOWING AN OPERATOR AND LOCKING ONTO A RETROREFLECTOR WITH A LASER TRACKER | 06-23-2016 |
| 20170234658 | DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPON | 08-17-2017 |
