Patent ID: 8184270

Claim:
A system for viewing an object in a visually obscured environment, comprising: a laser for generating a beam of light which is directed at the object; a pulse generator for generating a reference pulse which triggers said laser; said laser emitting said beam of light when triggered by said pulse generator; a transmit polarizer for polarizing said beam of light generated by said laser; a range generator which is also triggered by said pulse generator, wherein said range generator generates a range window positioned at a desired range; a polarization filter which receives reflected light from the object, and only passes light of a given polarization; a gated optical detector which (1) receives reflected light from the object passed by said polarization filter, (2) receives said range window from said range generator, and (3) produces a gated optical output which contains reflections from ranges corresponding with said range window; and, a display connected to said gated optical detector for displaying said gated optical output of said gated optical detector.