US 11,726,384 B1
Low power compact optical communication and collision avoidance systems
Thomas W. Stone, Hellertown, PA (US)
Assigned to Wavefront Research, Inc., Northampton, PA (US)
Filed by Wavefront Research, Inc., Northampton, PA (US)
Filed on Dec. 6, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/543,678.
Application 15/172,991 is a division of application No. 14/216,402, filed on Mar. 17, 2014, abandoned.
Application 17/543,678 is a continuation in part of application No. 15/589,428, filed on May 8, 2017, granted, now 11,194,224.
Application 15/589,428 is a continuation of application No. 15/172,991, filed on Jun. 3, 2016, abandoned.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/799,998, filed on Mar. 15, 2013.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04B 10/11 (2013.01); G02F 1/31 (2006.01); H04B 10/25 (2013.01); G02B 27/09 (2006.01); H04B 10/50 (2013.01); H04B 10/66 (2013.01); H04Q 11/00 (2006.01)
CPC G02F 1/31 (2013.01) [G02B 27/095 (2013.01); H04B 10/11 (2013.01); H04B 10/2589 (2020.05); H04B 10/50 (2013.01); H04B 10/66 (2013.01); H04Q 11/0003 (2013.01)] 6 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for initiating communication between two vehicles, the system comprising:
a transmitting vehicle sub-system comprising: an optical source;
an optical switching component configured to direct output from the optical source among an array of spatial positions in an output plane; wherein the switching component comprises a number of cascaded switchable transmission gratings; the number of cascaded switchable transmission gratings receiving an input beam from the optical source and routing the input beam to one spatial position from the array of spatial positions;
an infinite-conjugate imaging optical subsystem having a focal plane, said output plane being located at an image plane of the imaging optical subsystem; the infinite conjugate imaging optical subsystem imaging each spatial position from the array of spatial positions into a predetermined direction;
one or more detectors; and
a second wide-angle imaging optical subsystem; the second wide-angle imaging optical subsystem imaging a predetermined solid angle onto one of one or more detectors;
and a receiving vehicle sub-system comprising a retromodulator.