IMAGE ACQUISITION COMPOUND LENS AND APPLICATION THEREOF

Abstract

Disclosed are an image acquisition compound lens and application thereof. The image acquisition compound lens includes a camera lens and two or more convex mirrors having a same shape, wherein, the camera lens has a predetermined front field of view; the two or more convex mirrors having the same shape are symmetrically disposed with respect to an optical axis (c) of the camera lens within the predetermined front field of view of the camera lens, and configured to reflect partial views beside and behind the camera lens to the camera lens respectively; a mirror gap is formed between the convex mirrors symmetrically disposed, allowing the mirror lens to directly acquire views within a first front field of view right in front of the mirror lens.

Claims

1. An image acquisition compound lens, comprising: a plurality of camera lens and a plurality of convex mirrors having a same shape, wherein the plurality of camera lens have a predetermined optical view angle and a predetermined front field of view determined according to an optical view angle; the plurality of convex mirrors having the same shape are symmetrically disposed within the predetermined front field of view of the plurality of camera lens with respect to an optical axis c of the plurality of camera lens, and configured to reflect partial views beside and behind the plurality of camera lens to the plurality of camera lens respectively; a mirror gap is formed between the convex mirrors symmetrically disposed, wherein the mirror lens are configured to directly acquire views within a first front field of view right in front of the mirror lens.

2. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 1, wherein the number of the convex mirrors is two.

3. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 1, wherein the convex mirror is one or more of: a spherical mirror, a parabolic mirror, and a hyperbolic mirror.

4. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 1, wherein an overlapping region is formed between fields of view reflected by adjacent convex mirrors.

5. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of camera lens are zoom lens.

6. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 1, further comprising an image electronic processing device connected to the plurality of camera lens.

7. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 1, wherein the convex mirror has a sector structure with a central angle of 180 or more.

8. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of convex mirrors having the same shape collectively reflect all the views beside and behind the plurality of camera lens to the plurality of camera lens.

9. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 2, wherein the convex mirror is one of a spherical mirror, a parabolic mirror, or a hyperbolic mirror.

10. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 2, wherein an overlapping region is formed between fields of view reflected by adjacent convex mirrors.

11. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of camera lens is a zoom lens.

12. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 2, further comprising an image electronic processing device connected to the plurality of camera lens.

13. The image acquisition compound lens according to claim 2, wherein the convex mirror has a sector structure with a central angle of 180 or more.

14. A vehicle comprising: an image acquisition compound lens, comprising: a plurality of camera lens and a plurality of convex mirrors having a same shape, wherein the plurality of camera lens have a predetermined optical view angle and a predetermined front field of view determined according to an optical view angle; the plurality of convex mirrors having the same shape are symmetrically disposed within the predetermined front field of view of the plurality of camera lens with respect to an optical axis c of the plurality of camera lens, and configured to reflect partial views beside and behind the plurality of camera lens to the plurality of camera lens respectively; a mirror gap is formed between the convex mirrors symmetrically disposed, wherein the mirror lens are configured to directly acquire views within a first front field of view right in front of the mirror lens.

15. The vehicle according to claim 9, wherein the number of the convex mirrors is two.

16. The vehicle according to claim 9, wherein the convex mirror is one of a spherical minor, a parabolic mirror, or a hyperbolic minor.

17. The vehicle according to claim 9, wherein an overlapping region is formed between fields of view reflected by adjacent convex mirrors.

18. The vehicle according to claim 9, wherein the plurality of camera lens zoom lens.

19. The vehicle according to claim 9, wherein the convex mirror has a sector structure with a central angle of 180 or more.

20. The vehicle according to claim 9, wherein the plurality of convex mirrors having the same shape collectively reflect all the views beside and behind the camera lens to the camera lens.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] In order to make the content of the present application easier to understand, the present application will be further described in detail below in accordance with the embodiments and the accompanying drawings of the present application:

[0019] FIGS. 1A-1B are schematic diagrams showing the arrangement and framing principle of the convex mirrors provided by the present application;

[0020] FIG. 2 schematically shows a front view of a compound lens provided by the present application and an omnidirectional imaging principle;

[0021] FIG. 3 is a top view of FIG. 2;

[0022] FIG. 4 is a side view of FIG. 2;

[0023] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the effect of the omnidirectional framing range provided by the present application;

[0024] FIGS. 6A-6D are schematic diagrams of applying the compound lens provided by the present application to vehicle status monitoring;

[0025] FIG. 7 shows an image acquisition effect of a field of view in the front of the camera lens in FIG. 6;

[0026] FIG. 8 shows an image acquisition effect of a field of surrounding views through the convex mirrors in FIG. 6.

[0027] Description of reference numerals: camera lens 1, first front field of view 10, convex mirror 2, equivalent convex mirror 20, cutting line 21, transparent cover 3, mirror gap 30, predetermined front field of view 40, camera lens node O, optical axis c of a camera lens.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0028] The embodiments of the present application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0029] FIG. 1 shows the arrangement and framing principle of the convex mirrors 2 in the omnidirectional image acquisition compound lens structure of the present application as the core technology and structural principle. Based on the basic principle of geometric optics, the convex mirror 2 generally has a circular projection shape with high efficiency, and the mirror structure of the convex mirrors described hereafter in the present application has the circular projection shape unless otherwise stated. It should be understood that in other embodiments, the structure of the convex mirror 2 can be selected according to actual needs, for example, when performing panoramic VR shooting, the convex mirror 2 can be attained by cutting a right circular convex mirror; and when the screen ratio of the display used is 16:9, the convex mirror 2 can be obtained by cutting a convex mirror with an aspect ratio of 16:9.

[0030] Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, two adjacent convex mirrors 2 labeled left and right are showed in FIG. 1A is a field of view equivalent to that of a single complete full-circular convex mirror such as the equivalent full-circular convex mirror 20 shown in FIG. 1B can be attained by symmetrically cutting the two adjacent mirror surfaces covered by the shaded portions L and R in the figure and forming a mirror gap 30 therebetween. The mirror gap 30 is beneficial in that the camera lens 1 can directly photograph views within the first field of view 10 in front of the camera lens 1 while acquiring the surrounding views reflected by the convex mirrors 2. The predetermined view field 40 in front of the camera lens 1 (including the field of view reflected by the convex mirror 2 and the first field of view 10 directly acquired by the camera lens 1) depends on the view angle determined by the preset focal length of lens, and if the camera lens 1 use a zoom lens, the view angle can be arbitrarily changed within the range of focal length variation. The fields of view at the two sides obtained by reflection may partially overlap, when a larger portion of the area of the mirror (or a smaller mirror gap 30) is retained depending on the different cutting degree of the convex mirrors 2 at the two sides; while the fields of view at the two sides may be discontinued when cutting excessively, that is, retaining a smaller portion of the area of the mirror (or a larger mirror gap 30). In general, as long as the remaining portion is larger than half of the circular surface, a field of view of the equivalent full-circular convex mirror as shown in FIG. 1B can be relatively easily obtained. In particular, a certain overlapping region is formed between the fields of view of adjacent convex mirrors 2, which currently can be easily de-duplicated through processing by an image electronic processing system and continuous images can be obtained for recording or displaying. The cut convex mirror 2 may have a sector structure with a central angle of 180 or more. It should be understood that in other embodiments, the cut convex mirror 2 may have a rectangular structure.

[0031] In summary, in term of the framing space, with the convex mirrors 2 provided, the camera lens 1 can simultaneously obtain the first front field of view 10 of the lens (the above smaller half of the spherical space, within the predetermined front field of view 40) and the framing range of the below larger half of the spherical space through reflection.

[0032] FIG. 2 shows the mechanical structure and geometrical optics of the compound lens of the present application. The camera lens 1 is disposed at the bottom of the transparent cover 3, and the camera lens 1 has a preset view angle range 40 corresponding to aOe shown in the figure, and O is a node of the camera lens 1. Two convex mirrors 2 symmetrically disposed at the two sides of the optical axis c of the camera lens 1 can symmetrically select different curvatures, projection radii and mounting angles, and R1, R2 or R3 shown in the figure illustrates multiple choices of the radii of curvature of different convex mirrors 2, but the positions and shapes of the convex mirrors 2 must be completely symmetrically arranged and be located within the range of the view angle aOe of the camera lens 1, so that the camera lens 1 can acquire all the views through reflection without any omission and can directly obtain the vision in the first front field of view 10 right in the front through the mirror gap 30; the effective reflection regions of the convex mirrors 2 are within the range indicated by the arcs ab and de. In an embodiment, the size of the mirror gap 30 may be equal to the diameter of the equivalent full-circle convex mirror 20. Apparently, according to the basic principle of geometric optics, the convex mirror can choose different projection radii and curvatures. The smaller the radius of curvature R is, the larger the curvature is, the larger the distortion of the reflected image is, and the wider the reflection field of view is. Conversely, the larger the radius of curvature R is, the smaller the distortion of the reflected image is, and the narrower the reflection field of view is. In practical applications, it may be required to perform the appropriate coordination and selection according to occasions and purposes.

[0033] According to FIGS. 3 and 4, the mirror gap 30 of the two convex mirrors 2 can be attained by cutting along the chord line indicated by the cutting line 21 when viewed from the top (i.e., in a front projection direction). When selecting the position of the chord line, as mentioned above, when the retained mirror area is larger, a certain overlapping region will be formed between the reflection fields of view of the minors at the two sides (can be de-duplicated by the post-image processing software). On the contrary, if the retained mirror area is too small, the discontinuity of the reflection view range may occur. All of these problems can be solved by comprehensively coordinating and setting the curvature of the convex mirror 2, the mounting angle, the projection radius, the set view angle of the camera lens 1, and the distance to the camera lens 1 according to application occasions, so as to achieve the desired field of view. One way is to use a zoom lens to conveniently adjust the range of view angles; and the convex minor 2 can adopt a mirror shape such as sphere, a paraboloid, a hyperboloid or the like according to the requirements for image aberration and distortion. With the above setting, in the ideal case where the framing range is most fully acquired, the framing range can cover almost the full spherical surface except for a small portion shielded by the convex mirrors 2 at two sides and by the camera lens 1 itself.

[0034] According to FIG. 5, the camera lens 1 can directly acquire the views within the first front field of view 10; the two convex mirrors 2 symmetrically arranged within the predetermined front view 40 of the camera lens 1 reflect the surrounding and rear views to the camera lens 1, i.e., the camera lens 1 simultaneously acquires the full spherical vision. According to the foregoing discussion, when the projection radius of the convex mirror 2 and the mounting angle are matched with geometric optical parameters such as the view angle of the camera lens, the first front field of view 10 determined by the view angle of the camera lens 1 and the surrounding and rear fields of view reflected by the convex mirrors 2 can be completely stitched without gaps.

[0035] FIGS. 6A to 6D show an embodiment of the compound lens for monitoring vehicle status. Since the compound lens of the present application has an extremely simple optical and mechanical structure, it can be made in a very small size, which is beneficial to be simultaneously or selectively installed on every part (such as the position indicated by the dotted circle in the figure) of a vehicle body and provides omnidirectionally, simultaneously, synchronously, two-way monitoring and recording of an event and the two (multi) parties associated with the event. FIGS. 7 and 8 show image acquisition effects of the compound lens of the present application disposed on various parts of the vehicle body according to FIG. 6, displayed by an electronic screen. The camera lens 1, through an image electronic processing device connected, can simply process the raw images captured by the entire compound lens, such as de-duplication, correction, stitching, overlapping, and electronically displaying.