Patent ID: 7301134

Claim:
A system for increasing frame rates of pixel data of a beam of electromagnetic energy, the system comprising, an array for receiving the beam, the array is a focal plane array comprising an array of photodetectors as respective pixels, a portion of the photodetectors are illuminated by the beam for providing magnitudes for the respective pixels, the focal plane array scanning the photodetectors in sequence for providing the pixel data including pixel locations within the array and the respective magnitudes, the focal plane array receiving a window command specifying a window for reducing the scan to a number of pixels less than a total number of pixels in the focal plane array, and a controller for receiving the pixel data and for determining the window from the pixel data and generating the window command for detecting a spot size of the beam within the window, a scan of all of the pixel in the array providing a full scan frame rate, a scan of all of the pixels in the window provides a window frame rate that is higher than the full scan frame rate, the window being sized to detect.