Patent ID: 7164811
Filing Date: 2007-01-16
Classification: G03B,H04N

Abstract:
1. Apparatus for both capturing an image and projecting an image, comprising: image capturing apparatus including a multi-pixel array of light sensitive devices for capturing a viewed image; projection apparatus including a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) multi-pixel mirror array for projecting an image on display apparatus; a relatively small hand-held device for housing both said image capturing apparatus and said image projection apparatus and wherein the multi-pixel array of light sensitive devices and the multi-pixel mirror array are aligned on a common central light axis, and wherein the pixels of the multi-pixel array of the image capturing apparatus are matched pixel-to-pixel with the mirrors of the multi-pixel mirror array of the projection apparatus; an optical assembly located in said hand-held device for both transmitting light from a viewed image to the multi-pixel array of the image capturing apparatus and for projecting light from the multi-pixel mirror array of the projection apparatus to the display apparatus in a time shared operational mode; wherein the optical assembly comprises at least one objective lens located at one end of the device and an optical beam splitter located behind the objective lens for folding light of an image captured by the objective lens to the multi-pixel array of the image capturing apparatus and for transmitting light from an image generated by the multi-pixel mirror array of the projection apparatus substantially unimpeded through the beam splitter and the objective lens on said common central light axis; and wherein the beam splitter is oriented at an angle of substantially 45° relative to the objective lens and the common central light axis and wherein the multi-pixel array of the image capturing apparatus is located on one side of the beam splitter and oriented at an angle of 90° relative to the common central light axis whereby an image viewed by said image capturing apparatus and an image projected by said projection apparatus include pixel-to-pixel matching therebetween thereby enabling simultaneous aligned overlay and annotation of displayed images.