Patents Represented by Attorney Chistopher O. Edwards
  • Patent number: 7924415
    Abstract: The present invention provides a light direction sensor for determining the direction of a light source. The system includes an image sensor; a spacer attached to the image sensor, and a pattern mask attached to said spacer. The pattern mask has a slit pattern that as light passes through the slit pattern it casts a diffraction pattern onto the image sensor. The method operates by receiving a beam of light onto a patterned mask, wherein the patterned mask as a plurality of a slit segments. Then, diffusing the beam of light onto an image sensor and determining the direction of the light source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2011
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
    Inventor: Douglas B. Leviton