Patent ID: 6201574
Filing Date: 2001-03-13
Classification: A61B,G06F,G06T,G08B,H04N

Abstract:
An electronic imaging system comprising:a wide-angle lens for producing a wide-angle image, the wide-angle lens producing a perspective distortion in the wide-angle image; andan imaging sensor, having a surface in optical communication with the wide-angle lens, for generating an output signal representing at least a portion of a corrected wide-angle image, the imaging sensor comprising a plurality of imaging elements, the plurality of imaging elements having a distribution on the surface representable by a nonlinear function,wherein the plurality of imaging elements are distributed such that the perspective distortion in the wide-angle image is substantially corrected to produce the corrected wide-angle image, at least three of the plurality of imaging elements being distributed to define a first curved row of imaging elements, each of the imaging elements defining the first curved row corresponding to a different point on a first straight line along the corrected wide-angle image,thereby allowing for direct mapping between the at least three sensor elements and the points on the first straight line in the corrected wide-angle image.