SBIR Phase II: MEMS Deformable Mirrors for Laser Applications

建议的创新是什么？这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将推进紧凑型360度相机系统的最先进水平，在不影响光学设备质量或分辨率的情况下，实现当前系统尺寸的约1/8。基于凸面镜的光学系统已经实现了极高分辨率的超广角相机系统。这些系统的一个基本限制是光学元件的大小与成像传感器的大小有关。实现了反射镜直径在传感器尺寸的10倍范围内。这项研究的目的是克服上述限制，在传感器大小的3-5倍水平上实现镜面直径，在整个视场范围内保持超高分辨率。在这个第二阶段的项目中，将建造一个包括光学和相机传感器的微型高分辨率360度原型系统来展示这种能力。拟议的创新会产生什么更广泛的/商业影响？该项目的更广泛影响将是扩大超广角摄像头的市场覆盖范围，用于多种应用，包括视频会议、机器人和家庭监控。这种设计光学元件的新方法将大大降低高分辨率广角光学元件的形状系数。如今消费市场上可用的高分辨率相机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希望在哪里看起来独立于彼此。这有可能将云台相机市场转变为“固态云台/云台/变焦”机型。这项研究将产生非常低的尺寸、重量和功率的摄像头，这可能会导致小型无线电池供电系统，这将增加各种不同应用的摄像头的扩散。

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.