Abstract: A processing device for air/ground reconnaissance using optronic equipment of high performance. A high speed detection matrix and a particular electronic processing of video signals is used to reconstruct a scan image from elementary images which have a high degree of overlap and are offset due to scan residual. For example, an incident light beam is projected in the direction of a line of sight through an optical system. Video signals are transmitted to a digital circuit to supply luminance values of successive elementary images to two image memories. A correlation processor delivers an offset signal for the current image to an image reconstruction processor which also receives luminance values for the current images. An image patch memory is reconstructed in which the elementary images are realigned.

Abstract: Disclosed is a detection method and a corresponding array architecture comprising sensors positioned according to a particular geometry, enabling the integration of a circuit for the management of the integration cycles and of transfers of charges between injection-integration circuits and TDI type summation circuits in the focal plane of the array. The array is fitted into a scanning camera that scans in a particular direction. The camera is designed to form a video signal for an image made up of pixels spaced out at a pitch p.sub.p with a value corresponding to the standard. The array has several rows of elementary sensors. The the sensors that belong to different rows and are aligned in the scanning direction define a detection channel V.sub.k. The spatial pitch p.sub.c of one and the same detection channel has a value that differs from the value of the pixel pitch p.sub.p by a fraction of this pixel pitch such that a sensor-pixel coincidence, which is achieved for a reference sensor C.sub.

Abstract: An imaging system is provided with integrated measurement of wear in at least one of the system's optical elements working in the transmission mode, in a given spectral band. The system includes a combination of optical elements and an imaging detector on which there is projected the image of an observed scene by means of the optical elements which produces a video signal of the observed scene. An alarm is provided to signal the existence of an optical element having a degree of wear which exceeds a critical value.

Abstract: A system for correcting the trajectory of a projectile so that it reaches a designated target. The system comprises an optical radar comprising a laser emitting in the infrared band that makes it possible, in association with a processing device, to follow the movements of the target and of the projectile at the same time. The pieces of information given by the processing device enable a computer to calculate corrections to be made to the trajectory of the projectile in a final stage so that it meets the target. By modifying the trajectory of a projectile, such as a self-propelled missile or a shell, launched towards a target, the projectile can be made to hit a moving target or pass by at a reasonable distance that is small enough for the explosion provoked by its charge to definitely destroy the target.

Abstract: Disclosed is an airborne optoelectronic system using a facetted port. There is provision for compensation means in the form of two prisms with variable index, each formed by a lateral facet and a second facet forming a cavity, within which the refractive index is adjusted by the control of the internal gas pressure. The variation in the pressure with the cavity is achieved by following a control point value depending notably on the altitude of the carrier and the orientation of the line of sight. This results in eliminating the doubling of the image which occurs when there is no compensation when the altitude of the carrier varies and when the incident flux is distributed among the facets. The disclosed device can be applied to optoelectronic systems for warplanes, the flight altitudes of which may vary widely.

Abstract: This system enables the boresighting of the optical axes of a system comprising, for example: an infrared distance measuring device, a television camera, sensitive in the visible band, and a laser telemeter which does not emit radiation in the ranges of spectral sensitivity of the distance measuring device and of the camera. One embodiment includes:a collimated radiation source, associated with the laser;a wide-band collimator including, in its focal plane, a screen with holes cut out in it, constituting a reticle illuminated by an incandescent bulb, the surface of the screen being covered with glass micro-beads. The source associated with the laser forms a light spot on the screen, and this light spot is visible to the television camera. The holes form a reticle visible both to the television camera and to the distance measuring device. The distance measuring device determines the distance between the image of the reticle and a reference point on its image sensor.

Abstract: In a video imagery device, the detector is mounted on the missile structure and not on a head which is stabilized by gyroscopic action. The device includes optical deflection elements for bringing the stabilized optical receiving system into a position corresponding to the axis of the detector. These optical deflection elements utilize the path of the mechanical axes of rotation in elevation and in azimuth which pass through the center of the gimbal suspension. The device can be equipped to compensate for image rotation produced at the level of the detector.

Abstract: A television camera equipped with a device making it possible to automatically eliminate the blooming effect produced by a saturating bright spot.The device includes a closed loop formed by a circuit for the comparison of the video signal with a predetermined threshold close to the saturating level and whose output supplies a generator for deflection signals corresponding to the localization at X and Y of the bright spot on the image and a generator for producing a unblanking signal for the tube during the line flyback and with a frequency variable as a function of the brightness of the bright spot, and circuits for mixing the deflection and unblanking signals respectively with TV scan deflection signals and with the beam blanking signal in such a way that there is a local modification of the tube sensitivity at the location of the bright spot by reducing the charge integration time.

Abstract: Camera having means for the automatic regulation of the sensitivity of a charge transfer detector functioning by vertical frame transfer. These means comprise a loop for controlling the video signal by varying the integration time of electrons in the image area of the CTD sensor, as well as an optical attenuating device for chopping said area during each period of transferring the collected charges into the store. The attenuator has at least one fixed disk and one movable disk controlled in rotation, the disks carrying optical densities or being made of polarizers.

Abstract: An infrared imaging device enabling operation in the panning mode with a very high sensitivity and the facility of viewing a desired part of the observed field. A pyroelectric imaging tube is shifted relative to the observed scene and the infrared image on the target is read in a line by line scan the direction of the line being perpendicular to that in which the image is shifted. The shift takes place at a speed corresponding to a whole number R of line intervals in the course of one image frame scan comprising n=KR lines, with the result that each point is examined K times in the course of K successive frame periods; the video signal is accordingly processed to perform K successive integrations.

Abstract: A low light level image pick-up tube is protected from excessive illumination intensity damage by controlling a very high voltage assembly supplying the tube. The tube comprises in a preferred embodiment a plurality of image intensifier stages in cascade preceding an electron gun from which a video signal is provided by electronic scanning.A mean level video regulation circuit provides from the video signal an output signal used for controlling the supply voltage value to at least one of the image intensifier stages including the last one i.e. that preceding the electron gun. Further, a signal proportional to the supply current to the last image intensifier stage is used for controlling the supply voltage value of the input image intensifier stage which receives focussed radiation from an observed field.