Patent · US Expired

Pattern recognition system

US7368745B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
9References
49Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 27, 2003
Grant dateMay 6, 2008
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 10, 2023

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01S3/7867
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A star pattern recognition system (1) comprises an optical filter arrangement (10) in the form of an array (12) of independently tiltable mirrors (M1), (M2). Light from a distant starfield (2) is incident upon the mirror array (12). Each mirror (M1), (M2) reflects a respective image of the starfield, and these images are brought to a common overlapping focus at a detector (18) by a parabolic mirror (14). The mirrors M1, M2 are tilted relative to each other such that when a given star pattern to be recognised is present in the field of view of the filter, each mirror reflects the image of a different star in the pattern onto a common point on a detector (18), thereby providing a detectable output intensity peak that indicates the presence of the star pattern in the field of view of the filter arrangement.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.