Quad-video sensor and method

Abstract

A video signal processor has parallel signal processing circuits to reducerocessing time. A plurality of pixel imaging arrays produce signals indicative of an object. The pixel imaging arrays are scanned simultaneously and processed by parallel circuits to produce a plurality of video signals. The video image signals are combined to produce a signal suitable for display on a conventional video monitor.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A video sensor system for parallel processing optical image signals, comprising: a plurality of synchronized pixel imaging arrays for simultaneously producing parallel signals indicative of portions of the image of an object;   video image processor means corresponding and connected to each pixel imaging array and operating synchronized and in parallel for simultaneously processing the signals indicative of portions of the image of an object produced by the plurality of pixel arrays to produce a plurality of parallel video image output signals; and   means for simultaneously receiving and storing said parallel video output signals from said processor means and combining the plurality of stored parallel video image signals to produce a video signal indicative of the complete image of the object.   
     
     
       2. The video sensor system of claim 1 including a plurality of circuits connected in parallel between the plurality of pixel imaging arrays and the means for receiving and storing said parallel video output signals from said processor means and combining the plurality of video image signals, each circuit comprising: means for scanning a corresponding one of the pixel arrays to produce analog signals indicative of optical signals incident upon the pixel array; and   means connected to said scanning means for converting the analog signals to digital video and target data signals.   
     
     
       3. The video sensor system of claim 2 including four synchronized parallel pixel imaging arrays and four synchronized parallel processing circuits. 
     
     
       4. The video sensor system of claim 1 wherein the means for simultaneously receiving and storing said parallel video output signals from said processor means and combining the plurality of stored parallel video image signals comprises: a video random access memory having a plurality of sections, each section being connected to a corresponding one of the video image processor means to receive parallel digital video signals therefrom;   video random access scanning means connected to the video random access memory; and   means connected to the video random scanning means for producing a video signal output indicative of the complete image of the object.   
     
     
       5. A method for parallel processing optical image signals in a video sensor system, comprising the steps of: simultaneously producing parallel signals indicative of portions of the image of an object from a plurality of synchronized and parallel pixel imaging arrays;   simultaneously processing the parallel signals produced by the plurality of synchronized pixel imaging arrays to produce a plurality of parallel video image output signals with synchronized video image processor means corresponding to each pixel imaging array and operating in parallel; and   simultaneously receiving and storing said parallel video output signals and in a video ram memory and combining the plurality of stored parallel video image output signals to produce a video signal indicative of the complete image of the object.   
     
     
       6. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of producing parallel signals includes the steps of: simultaneously scanning the synchronized pixel arrays to produce parallel analog signals indicative of portions of the image of an object corresponding to optical signals incident upon the pixel arrays; and   simultaneously converting the parallel analog signals to complete digital video image and target data signals.   
     
     
       7. The method of claim 6 wherein the steps of simultaneously producing and parallel processing the signals indicative of portions of the image of an object are performed in each quadrant of said image synchronously and, simultaneously. 
     
     
       8. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of combining the plurality of stored parallel video image signals comprises the steps of: scanning said video ram memory to read the video image one line at a time; and   processing the video random scanning means to produce a video signal output suitable for display.