Patent ID: 7277119

Claim:
A hand-held unit comprising: binoculars having a pair of monocular components, each component having an image viewing end and an image receiving end and defining a line-of-sight, the binoculars providing three-dimensional event viewing from the image viewing end; and a digital camera mounted to the binoculars with the camera lens' line-of-sight approximately parallel to the lines-of-sight of the monocular components, the digital camera comprising: a receiving lens for receiving at least one image; a digital memory storage unit integral with the hand-held unit; a display device mounted on an exterior surface of the digital camera; a processing system for generating at least one digital image of said received image, storing the digital image in the memory storage unit and displaying the received image on the display device; and means for controlling the generating, storing and displaying of the image, the digital camera and the display device being arranged relative to the binoculars so that the following modes of operation are possible: mode 1 —an event can be recorded contemporaneous with a user viewing in three dimensions the event; and mode 2 —a previously-recorded event can be displayed on the display device simultaneous with a user viewing in three dimensions the event.