Patent ID: 8687062

Claim:
An aerial camera system comprising: a camera cluster including a plurality of cameras, wherein each camera is oriented in a direction selected from a plurality of different camera directions having a downward component; three rotators, each rotator configured to rotate the camera cluster about a respective axis of rotation in response to one or more signals, wherein a first rotator of the three rotators is configured to change an orientation of the camera cluster about a vertical axis and a second rotator of the three rotators is configured to change the orientation of the camera cluster about a horizontal axis; and a control module configured to (a) provide one or more signals to cause the first rotator of the three rotators to rotate the camera cluster about the vertical axis; (b) to successively: (i) provide a signal to the second rotator of the three rotators to rotate the camera cluster thereby changing the orientation of the camera cluster about the horizontal axis, and (ii) cause cameras in the camera cluster to acquire respective aerial images; (c) repeat steps (a) and (b).