Patent ID: 7636452

Claim:
A system for automatically acquiring a target with a narrow field-of-view gimbaled imaging sensor, the system comprising: (a) a target-detection subsystem including at least one target-detection imaging sensor having a first field-of-view; (b) a target-tracking subsystem including: (i) a target-tracking imaging sensor having a second field-of-view significantly smaller than said first field-of-view, and (ii) a gimbal mechanism for controlling a viewing direction of said target-tracking imaging sensor; and (c) a processing system in communication with said target-detection subsystem and said target-tracking imaging subsystem, said processing system including a target transfer module responsive to detection of a target by said target-detection subsystem to: (i) process data from said target-detection subsystem to determine a target direction vector, (ii) operate said gimbal mechanism so as to align the viewing direction of said target-tracking imaging sensor with said target direction vector, (iii) derive an image from said target-tracking imaging sensor, (iv) correlate said image with at least part of an image from said target-detection subsystem by correlating features of said images to achieve image registration, thereby deriving a misalignment error, said correlating being based at least in part on background features not corresponding to the target, and (v) supply said misalignment error to said target-tracking subsystem for use in acquisition of the target.