Patent ID: 7429996

Claim:
An imaging system configured to take panoramic pictures, the imaging system comprising: a stationary camera including: an image sensor, and a range finder associated with the camera, the range finder includes a radiation source to emit the modulated radiation into the field of view of the image sensor such that a portion of the radiation is reflected back to the image sensor from one or more objects within the field of view to provide depth information for objects within a field of view of the image sensor of the stationary camera; a processor coupled to receive information from the image sensor and the depth information from the range finder, the processor to compute a 360 depth map for a detected object within a region of interest from the stationary camera according to the depth information and to process pictures taken by the image sensor according to the 360 degree depth map to capture a panoramic picture in one shot; a substantially paraboloid-shaped reflector positioned to orthographically reflect a portion of the reflected radiation to the image sensor with an orthographic lens; and a timer connected to the processor and configured to start counting when the radiation is first emitted and configured to stop counting when a first portion of the reflected radiation causes a pixel within the image sensor to exceed a predetermined threshold.