Gerard L Rafanelli

51285304, Jul 7, 1992

May 28, 1991

7/706458

Brent L. Ellerbroek - Albuquerque NM
Gerard L. Rafanelli - Fountain Valley CA

Hughes Aircraft Company - Los Angeles CA

G01J 120

2502019

Relative piston misalignments between segments of a multisegment optical system, such as a segmented primary mirror, are reduced by a method in which elements of an arbitrary unknown extended scene image carried by an input beam are eliminated from the beam's error information in performing an error calculation. After appropriately processing the beam with the specialized sensor elements, spatial frequency domain representations of a variety of optical images are obtained which correspond to both individual segments, and to multiple combinations of segments of the optical system; each combination is preferably composed of two individual segments. The spatial frequency domain representations of the individual segments are then subtracted from the representations of the segment combinations to obtain spatial frequency domain functions for the combinations. These in turn are compared by a cross-coherence technique to derive spatial domain differences of piston differences misalignments between the combinations, from which the piston errors between individual segments can be calculated via a reconstruction matrix. The calculated piston errors are then used to make a compensating adjustment to the piston positions of the individual segments in the optical processing element.

61923222, Feb 20, 2001

Apr 19, 1996

8/633980

Gerard L. Rafanelli - Fountain Valley CA
Susan B. Mount - Torrance CA
Stephen K. Johnson - Herndon VA
Marilyn A. Sperka - Rancho Palos Verdes CA
Eric B. Jensen - Hermosa Beach CA
Mark J. Rehfield - Rancho Palos Verdes CA

Raytheon Company - Lexington MA

G01S 1750

702150

A spinning strip aperture imaging radiometer sensor system and data processing methods for detecting moving objects derived from a plurality of image frames acquired by a strip aperture imaging sensor. A moving object in any individual image frame results in a motion smear signature in the total synthesized image. The motion smear signature is processed to detect the moving objects. One embodiment of the system comprises a rotating strip aperture telescope, a two dimensional detector array that detects images in the telescope's focal plane, a rotation compensation device that prevents rotational smear during integration time of detectors of the array, a signal processor that records a plurality of image frames of a scene imaged by the telescope as it rotates around its optical axis, and that implements method(s) for detecting the moving objects present in the recorded images. A hierarchy of moving object detection processors and methods 20 is disclosed that includes spatial, temporal, spatial frequency, and temporal frequency domain detection processors, and is compatible with multi-spectral background rejection techniques. Selection of the appropriate processing procedure and method depends upon the scenario, and the effective signal to noise ratio characteristics of the moving object.

52744949, Dec 28, 1993

Jan 11, 1993

8/004166

Gerard L. Rafanelli - Fountain Valley CA
Claudio G. Parazzoli - Seattle WA

Hughes Aircraft Company - Los Angeles CA

G02B 2748
G03B 4100

359327

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for reducing or eliminating the speckle intensity distribution of an imaging and/or tracking system The benefits of utilizing a highly coherent source (12) as an imaging and tracking system are well known. However, such a coherent source (12) provides a speckle intensity distribution which reduces the effective resolution capability of the imaging system. This invention takes a coherent beam of light (14) and impinges it into a Raman cell (16) to obtain a broad spectral bandwidth beam of light having additional side wavelengths other than the original wavelength. In addition, this invention provides a means to improve the beam quality of all of the Raman lines. Therefore, a composite beam having broad spectral bandwidth composed of individual spectral lines having good beam quality is generated. As a result of the broad spectral bandwidth, images formed from targets illuminated by such a composite beam are substantially free of speckle intensity variations.

49253018, May 15, 1990

Nov 17, 1988

7/272375

Gerard L. Rafanelli - Fountain Valley CA

Hughes Aircraft Company - Los Angeles CA

G01B 900

356124

A laser source 28 and curvature matching optics 30 cooperate to generate a probe beam 32 having a generally Gaussian phase front with a given radius of curvature. The probe beam is reflected off of the surface of a primary mirror 12 and the differences, if any, between the radii of curvature of the probe beam 32 and mirror surface is detected by detector array 38. Suitable feedback circuitry can be employed to drive the actuators of segments 16-22 to provide the mirror 12 with the desired figure.

61557048, Dec 5, 2000

Apr 19, 1996

8/635073

Bobby R. Hunt - Tucson AZ
Gerard L. Rafanelli - Fountain Valley CA
Philip J. Sementilli - Tucson AZ
Susan B. Mount - Torrance CA
Albert M. Bisbee - Tucson AZ
James F. Montgomery - Hermosa Beach CA
Stephen K. Johnson - Herndon VA

Hughes Electronics - El Segundo CA

G01S 1389
G01S 1390

364525

A spinning strip aperture imaging radiometer sensor system and data processing method for synthesizing a super-resolved scene estimate (super-resolved scene) from a plurality of image frames acquired by the strip aperture imaging sensor system. One embodiment of the imaging system comprises a rotating strip aperture wide field of view telescope, a two dimensional detector array for detecting images in the focal plane of the telescope, rotation compensation apparatus for preventing rotational smear during the integration time of the detectors, a signal processor for recording a plurality of image frames of a scene that is imaged by the telescope as it rotates around its optical axis, and an estimation processor employing the present method for synthesizing the super-resolved scene estimate from the recorded images. The super-resolved image synthesis method uses a plurality of rotating strip aperture measurements within the strip aperture passband and within the passband of an equivalent bandlimited synthesized full circular aperture to estimate the spatial frequency information outside the total measurement passband, and/or outside the passband of the equivalent bandlimited synthesized full circular aperture, as well as within the equivalent bandlimited passband. Knowledge of the spatial response function of the strip aperture, the spatial response function of the detector array, noise statistics, and the temporal registrations of each of the recorded strip aperture images permits synthesis of the super-resolved full aperture image by the sensor system and image synthesis method.

48766020, Oct 24, 1989

May 2, 1988

7/189073

Robert Zwirn - Los Angeles CA
Gerard L. Rafanelli - Fountain Valley CA

Hughes Aircraft Company - Los Angeles CA

H04N 5208

358227

An electronic focus correction system is provided. The invention (10) is adapted to correct focus aberrations in an electronic imaging system which provides electrical signals representative of a scene of image data. The invention includes a memory (12) for providing sets of weighting coefficients and a two dimensional convolver (18) for multiplying the input electrical signals corresponding to a window in and around each pixel of image data by a set of the weighting coefficients. The two dimensional convolved (18) assigns to each pixel a value equal to the sum of the products of the coefficients times the electrical signals within each window to provide a plurality of weighted output signals. The output signals constitute a corrected image. A controller (20), responsive to the output of the two dimensional convolver (18), is provided to measure the figure of merit for the corrected image.

48345377, May 30, 1989

Dec 22, 1987

7/136681

Gerard L. Rafanelli - Fountain Valley CA
Lacy G. Cook - El Segundo CA

Hughes Aircraft Company - Los Angeles CA

G01B 902

356346

An interferometric spectrometer (20) for determining two-dimensional positional and spectral information of two-dimensional light sources (26) is disclosed. The spectrometer (20) includes a mechanism (28) for splitting a beam source (24) into two beam components (30) and (32). A mechanism (34) and (36) for focusing and centering the pair of beam components (30) and (32) is positioned in the line of projection of the beam components (30) and (32). A mechanism (38) and (40) for reflecting the pair of beam components (30) and (32) is positioned in the line of projection of the two beam components (30) and (32). A detector mechanism (42) for detecting the beam components (30) and (32) is positioned in the line of projection of the two beam components (30) and (32). A mechanism (44) for determining spatial and spectral information of the source (26) is associated with the detector mechanism (42 ). Also disclosed is a method of determining spatial and spectral information of a light source utilizing the spectrometer.

53509110, Sep 27, 1994

Apr 9, 1993

8/045841

Gerard L. Rafanelli - Fountain Valley CA
Brent L. Ellerbroek - Albuquerque NM
Susan B. Mount - Toorance CA
Mark J. Rehfield - Ranch Palos Verde CA

Hughes Aircraft Company - Los Angeles CA

G01J 120

2502019

An extended scene wavefront sensing apparatus and procedure that separates (deconvolves) scene effects from wavefront errors of an optical or similar system. The present wavefront sensing apparatus and procedure uses a point source wavefront slope sensor in scene scanning mode and estimates wavefront errors by using a cross-correlation or cross-coherence procedure that operates on the outputs of the point source wavefront slope sensor. A signal processing procedure employed by the point source wavefront slope sensor provides output signals corresponding to wavefront slopes at forward optics pupil locations geometrically projected to the location of the transmission and reflection measurement plane detector pairs. During the scanning process, each of the detector pairs (equivalent to a subaperture) measures the effects of the local unchanging wavefront error in the forward optical system and temporal variations due to the scanning scene. By cross correlating or cross-cohering each detector pair's temporal difference with differences from selected reference detector pairs, the scene induced variations in the measurement are eliminated, thereby leaving the stationary wavefront error component of the measurement.