SBIR Phase II: MEMS Deformable Mirrors for Laser Applications

拟议的创新是什么？该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将推进紧凑型360度摄像机系统的最新技术水平，实现当前系统的约1/8尺寸，而不会影响光学系统的质量或分辨率。基于凸面镜的光学器件已经实现了非常高分辨率的超广角相机系统。这些系统中的基本限制是光学器件的尺寸相对于成像传感器的尺寸。已经实现了在传感器尺寸的10倍范围内的反射镜直径。本研究的目的是克服上述限制，并实现3-5倍的传感器尺寸的水平的反射镜直径，在整个视场中保持超高分辨率。在第二阶段的项目中，将建造一个微型高分辨率360度原型系统，包括光学和相机传感器，以展示这种能力。该项目的更广泛影响将是增加用于多种应用的超广角摄像机的市场覆盖率，包括视频会议，机器人和家庭监控。这种设计光学器件的新方法将大大降低高分辨率广角光学器件的形状因数。当今消费市场上可用的高分辨率摄像头传感器可以更好地用于非常小的超广角摄像机，使多个远程用户能够决定他们想要相互独立的位置。这有可能将平移-倾斜-变焦相机的市场转变为“固态平移/倾斜/变焦”相机。这项研究将产生非常小的尺寸，重量和功率的相机，可以产生小型无线电池供电系统，这将增加相机的扩散，用于各种不同的应用。

What is the proposed innovation? This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will advance the state of the art in compact 360-degree camera systems, achieving sizes of about 1/8 of current systems, without compromising the quality or resolution of the optics. Convex mirror based optics has resulted in the realization of very high-resolution ultra-wide angle camera systems. A fundamental limitation in these systems has been the size of the optics in relation to the size of the imaging sensor. Mirror diameters in the range of 10 times the size of the sensor have been achieved. The objective of this research is to overcome the above limitation and achieve mirror diameters at the level of 3-5 times the size of the sensor, keeping ultra high resolution across the entire field of view. In this Phase II project, a miniature high-resolution 360-degree prototype system including optics and camera sensor will be built to demonstrate this capability.What are the broader/commercial impacts of the proposed innovation? The broader impact of this project will be will to increase the market reach of ultra-wide angle cameras for multiple applications, including video-conferencing, robotics and home surveillance. This new approach to designing optics will result in substantially reducing the form factor of high-resolution wide-angle optics. The high-resolution camera sensors available in the consumer market today can be better used in very small ultra-wide angle video cameras with the ability for multiple remote users to decide where they want to look independent of each other. This has the potential of transforming the market for pan-tilt-zoom cameras to "solid-state pan/tilt/zoom" cameras. The very low size, weight and power cameras that would result from this research can result in small wireless, battery powered systems that would increase the proliferation of cameras for a variety of different applications.