US 10,728,436 B2
OPTICAL DETECTION APPARATUS AND METHODSGeneral
US 10,728,436 B2
OPTICAL DETECTION APPARATUS AND METHODS
Tech Center:
2600 Communications
Examiner:
Lin Ye
Art Unit:
2697 Selective Visual Display Systems
Agent:
Inventors:
Filip Piekniewski; Vadim Polonichko; Eugene Izhikevich
Assignee:
HERCULES CAPITAL, INC.
Priority:
07/01/14
Filed:
12/18/17
Granted:
07/28/20
Expiration:
07/01/34
Abstract
An optical object detection apparatus and associated methods. The apparatus may comprise a lens (e.g., fixed-focal length wide aperture lens) and an image sensor. The fixed focal length of the lens may correspond to a depth of field area in front of the lens. When an object enters the depth of field area (e.g., sue to a relative motion between the object and the lens) the object representation on the image sensor plane may be in-focus. Objects outside the depth of field area may be out of focus. In-focus representations of objects may be characterized by a greater contrast parameter compared to out of focus representations. One or more images provided by the detection apparatus may be analyzed in order to determine useful information (e.g., an image contrast parameter) of a given image. Based on the image contrast meeting one or more criteria, a detection indication may be produced.
Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC)
G02G02B27/0075G02BB60W30/14B60WG06V10/431G06VG01C3/08G01CH04N23/45H04NH10F77/331H10F