Patent ID: 7535498

Claim:
An electronic binoculars devices comprising: a) a housing; b) a left front lens for receiving incoming natural light from a scene, the left front lens being attached to the housing; c) a right front lens for receiving incoming natural light from the scene, the right front lens being attached to the housing; d) at least one image sensor attached to the housing, the at least one image sensor being operative to effect at least one of: i) sensing natural light received from the left front lens to generate a left sensed electronic image; and ii) sensing natural light received from the right front lens to generate a right sensed electronic image; e) at least one image processing unit attached to the housing, the at least one image processing unit configured to produce at least one of: i) a left distorted electronic image from the left sensed electronic image; ii) a right distorted electronic image from the right sensed electronic image; f) a left rear viewfinder attached to the housing configured for viewing a first combination of: i) natural light from the scene received via at least one of the front lenses; ii) at least one of the distorted images; g) a right rear viewfinder attached to the housing configured for viewing a second combination of: i) natural light from the scene received via at least one of the front lenses; ii) at least one of the distorted images; wherein: i) the second combination is different from the first combination such that different scenes are viewable in the left and right rear viewfinders; ii) at least one given viewfinder of the left and right rear viewfinder is configured for blended scene viewing such that at least one of the first combination and the second combination is a blend including both: A) natural light from the scene received via at least one of the front lenses; and B) at least one of the distorted electronic images; and iii) the device is further configured such that: A) at least one of the left distorted electronic image and natural light from the left front lens is viewable via at least one of the left rear viewfinder and the right rear viewfinder; and B) at least one of the right electronic distorted image and natural light from the right front lens is viewable via at least one of the left rear viewfinder and the right rear viewfinder.