Patent Document ID: 9618746
Application ID: 12950116
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A head-mounted night vision system comprising: a housing configured to be mounted on a user's head above the user's eyes; a left digital night vision image sensor, a center digital night vision image sensor, and a right digital night vision image sensor, each digital sensor being in the housing, each digital sensor comprising a resolution of at least 1600×1200 pixels, the digital sensors directly and simultaneously receiving unamplified low intensity ambient input light comprising wavelengths in the visible to near infrared range of approximately 390 nanometers to 1100 nanometers, each of the digital sensors producing a different visible digital image using the ambient input light received by that digital sensor, the ambient light used to form the image including light in the visible to near infrared range of approximately 390 nanometers to 1100 nanometers received by that digital sensor; a processor that receives the simultaneously captured digital images from the digital night vision image sensors and processes the simultaneously captured digital images to produce a left wide-field image from the left and center digital night vision image sensors and to produce a right image from the right night vision image sensor, said processing comprising digitally stitching together the simultaneously captured digital images to create the left wide-field image comprising a visible portion spanning at least 50 degrees of the user's horizontal view such that the left wide-field image and the right image together span at least 60 degrees of the user's horizontal field of view; a left display and left eyepiece, the left display receiving and displaying the left wide-field image, and the left eyepiece disposed to receive light from the display such that said light propagates to the user's left eye such that the user's left eye can view said left wide-field image; a right display and right eyepiece, the right display receiving and displaying the right image, and the right eyepiece disposed to receive light from the display such that said light propagates to the user's right eye such that the user's right eye can view said right image; a left objective at the front of the housing, the left objective receiving unamplified low intensity ambient input light and providing the unamplified low intensity light to the left digital night vision image sensor; a center objective at the front of the housing, the center objective receiving unamplified low intensity ambient input light and providing the unamplified low intensity light to the center digital night vision image sensor; and a right objective at the front of the housing, the right objective receiving unamplified low intensity ambient input light and providing the unamplified low intensity light to the right digital night vision image sensor, wherein the left and center objectives have fields of view sufficiently large that the left and center digital night vision image sensors capture partially overlapping portions of the user's horizontal field of view, wherein the left and right objectives are angled away from each other and are angled away from the center objective such that the left, center, and right digital night vision image sensors capture substantially non-overlapping portions of the user's horizontal field of view, wherein the right-eye objective faces a rightward direction that is angled to the user's right in comparison to the outward direction which the right eyepiece faces, wherein the left-eye objective faces a leftward direction that is angled to the user's left in comparison to the outward direction which the left eyepiece faces, and wherein the objectives and sensors are arranged such that night vision system has a forward projection of less than 8.5 inches.