Patent ID: 7505609

Claim:
A method Performed in an optical correlator for determining orientation of a target object comprising: an optical correlator, developing a first reference filter comprising incrementally varying a first aspect of orientation of a plurality of training images taken from a viewpoint of said target object to develop at least one first correlation strength surface defining degrees of correlation with, and thus sensitive to, said corresponding first aspect of said target object, developing a second reference filter comprising incrementally varying a second aspect of orientation of the a plurality of training images taken from the viewpoint of said target object to develop at least one second correlation strength surface defining degrees of correlation with, and thus sensitive to, said corresponding second aspect of said target object, developing a third reference filter comprising incrementally varying a third aspect of orientation of the a plurality of training images taken from the viewpoint of said target object to develop at least one third correlation strength surface defining degrees of correlation with, and thus sensitive to, said corresponding third aspect of said target object, acquiring a target image of said target object, performing correlations of said target image with said first reference filter, said second reference filter and said third reference filter, determining orientation of said target object with respect to said first aspect, said second aspect and said third aspect by an intersection of correlation contours on said first correlation strength surface, said second correlation strength surface and said third correlation strength surface.