Patent ID: 8646690

Claim:
A system for expanding a field of view of a scene imaged by a vision system camera having an image sensor, the system being constructed and arranged to search and analyze features of interest in the scene comprising: a first outer mirror oriented at an acute angle with respect to an optical axis of the camera and a second outer mirror oriented at an opposing acute angle with respect to an opposing side of the optical axis; and a beam splitter located forward of the first outer mirror and the second outer mirror in a direction taken from the vision system camera, the beam splitter including a first reflecting surface and a second reflecting surface wherein the first outer mirror and first reflecting surface are arranged to direct a first field of view from the scene along the optical axis to the sensor and the second outer mirror and second reflecting surface are arranged to direct a second field of view from the scene along the optical axis to the sensor, wherein the first field of view is at least in part separated from the second field of view at the scene along a horizontal direction, and wherein the first outer mirror, the second outer mirror and the beam splitter are arranged to project each of the first field of view and the second field of view in a vertically stacked relationship of strips at the sensor.