Patent ID: 6943946
Filing Date: 2005-09-13
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
1. A multiple aperture imaging system comprising: a plurality of imaging elements each capturing light of a scene; an optical relay assembly for receiving and coherently summing captured light from each of the imaging elements; a combiner imaging sensor for receiving the coherently summed captured light from the optical relay assembly; a plurality of individual imaging sensors, each individual imaging sensor configured to receive captured light outputted from a respective one of the imaging elements; means for diverting the captured light, that is outputted from each of the imaging elements, toward the optical relay assembly and away from the individual imaging sensors; and a selector for enabling and disabling the means for diverting the captured light outputted from each of the imaging elements; wherein (i) when the selector disables the means for diverting the captured light, each individual imaging sensor forms an independent image based on light captured by a respective one of the imaging elements, and (ii) when the selector enables the means for diverting the captured light, the combiner imaging sensor coherently sums the captured light from the optical relay assembly to form an image having a higher resolution than another image formed by any one of the individual imaging sensors.