A lasercom coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE)-matched optical bench, with optional star-tracker capability, that includes a Transmitter (TX) fiber collimator creating a Gaussian beam from a singlemode (SM) or polarization maintaining (PM) fiber; a tiltball directly bonded to the optical bench, the tiltball performing centration of a TX beam with a telescope optical axis; a TX beam diverger creating a wide beam for acquisition, and a narrow beam for tracking and communications; a Point-Ahead Mechanism/mirror; a polarization diplexer cube or dichroic filter(s) separating TX and Receiver (RX) beams of opposite polarization and/or different wavelengths, wherein the polarization or dichroic and anti-reflective coatings are compatible with the adjunct star tracker; a fast-steering mechanism and mirror having a common-path to TX and RX; a RX optical passband filter; the RX optical passband filter having a flipper mechanism allowing for selecting the passband of the star-tracker or the RX passband.

A wide angle lens includes a first lens group and a second lens group. The first lens group includes a first lens having a negative refractive power, a second lens having a negative refractive power, and a third lens having a positive refractive power. The second lens group includes a fourth lens having a positive refractive power, a fifth lens having a positive refractive power, a sixth lens having a negative refractive power, and a seventh lens having a positive refractive power. The wide angle lens satisfies the following relationship: H2/G2R2<1.8, wherein H2 is a diameter of the image side surface of the first lens, and G2R2 is a curvature radius of the image side surface of the first lens.

An image of a target object may be captured by a method in which the target object is illuminated by a pulsed laser beam emitted by an illumination laser, which beam is aimed at the target object in the form of an illumination beam by an illumination optics unit. The illumination beam laser light reflected from the target object may be received by a receiving optics unit and directed to an image capturing device to generate an image of the target object on the image capturing device. The method may also include detecting the angular offset of the image of the target object with respect to a reference axis of the receiving optics unit, and stabilizing the visual axis of the image capturing device detected by imaging of the target object device by a first optical correcting element of the receiving optics unit that compensates for the angular offset.

The disclosed embodiments provide a system for controlling orientation of a payload. The system includes a gimbal structure with four or more axes. The system also includes a control system that controls the gimbal structure to provide unrestricted orientation and rotational motion of the payload mounted to an axis in the four or more axes, independently of an orientation of a base of the gimbal structure.

An optical lens stack includes an inner ring of a mounting structure containing axially spaced circumferential lens mounting surfaces on an inside diameter of the inner ring. The inner ring further includes a groove over a fixed axial length on the outer diameter. An outer ring formed to fit over the inner ring contains a groove on the inner diameter of the outer ring that corresponds to the groove on the inner ring and forms a circumferential cavity when the outer ring is mounted on the inner ring. The resulting cavity is filled with an energy absorbing material and serves as a vibration isolator for the lens stack.

Provided is a moving object imaging system including: an imager that captures an image of a moving object and outputs captured image data; a deflector that changes a deflection angle of an optical axis of the imager by rotating a reflecting mirror; a housing that supports the deflector; a posture change detector that detects change in posture of the housing; and a control unit that controls a deflection angle of the deflector in accordance with a detection result of the posture change detector.

Imaging systems and methods for imaging of scenes in apparent motion are described. A multi-axis positioning mechanism is operable to move an area imaging device along a tracking axis. A control module directs the multi-axis positioning mechanism to set the tracking axis to be substantially parallel with the apparent motion, and directs the multi-axis positioning mechanism to move the area imaging device in one or more cycles such that the area imaging device moves, in each of the one or more cycles, forward along the tracking axis at a tracking speed that compensates for the apparent motion. The control module directs the area imaging device to take at least one exposure during each of the one or more cycles to generate one or more exposures. An imaging module forms an image of the scene based on the one or more exposures.

An image stabilization apparatus includes: a first calculation unit configured to calculate an angular velocity of movement of an image capturing apparatus; a second calculation unit configured to calculate a moving amount of an object from a plurality of images; a third calculation unit configured to calculate an angular velocity of movement of the object; a determination unit configured to determine whether or not the object is walking; and a selection unit configured to select, based on a determination result of the determination unit, whether to perform control such that an image stabilization unit corrects image blur based on the angular velocities calculated by the first calculation unit and the third calculation unit, or such that the image stabilization unit corrects image blur based on the angular velocity calculated by the first calculation unit.

A method comprises operating a remote sensing vehicle comprising a host bus platform and a variable pitch instrument platform movably coupled to the host bus platform in at least one degree of freedom. The method comprises establishing a pointing position and scanning a target surface with the variable pitch instrument platform. The variable pitch instrument platform is dynamically movable relative to the host bus platform to vary the pointing position of the variable pitch instrument platform, thereby decoupling payload pointing from the host bus platform. Thus, payload data collection is independent of attitude control of the host bus platform. A method is provided of varying ground-sample-distance (GSD) value with a remote sensing vehicle. A remote sensing vehicle comprises a host bus platform and a variable pitch instrument platform for scanning or data collection of a target surface, and an dynamic coupling device (e.g., a gimbal(s)) movably coupling the variable pitch instrument platform to the host bus platform in at least one degree of freedom.

An integrated entertainment system is presented having a novel, ergonomic, lightweight augmented/virtual headset and novel activation accessories, together with a novel image/data projector which enables new levels of entertainment. The novel headset includes complementary, catadioptric optics and a foldable, transformable design and construction. The integrated accessories include a low-cost construction of identifiable, augmented reality target. The integrated data/image project includes a lightweight, compact construction enabling continuous, two-axis, 360-degree rotation without electrical transfer by slip rings or other means.