Picture processing apparatus

Claim 1

A picture processing apparatus for processing a facsimile picture of an ambient environment which is scanned through a wide angle optical system to eliminate optical distortion in the picture that is introduced by the optical system, comprising picture input means for producing a facsimile picture comprised of a plurality of pixels of a wide angle of view of the ambient environment which contains optical distortion introduced by the wide angle optical system, said picture input means being mounted on a movable support means which moves within the ambient environment, picture processing means which corrects the distorted picture of the ambient environment into an undistorted picture of the ambient environment which does not contain the optical distortion introduced by the optical system, said picture processing means having a first picture memory means which stores the pixels of the distorted picture of the ambient environment, a computing means which produces an undistorted picture of the ambient environment by eliminating and compensating the distortion of the picture stored in said first picture memory means for each stored pixel of the distorted picture by computing an address for storage of each stored pixel which will produce the undistorted picture, and a second picture memory means which stores the undistortioned picture produced by said computing means by storing each pixel at the computed address to produce the undistorted picture, display means for displaying the undistorted picture of the wide angle of view from said picture processing means; and said picture processing means and the display means are installed at a position which is remote from the movable support means, and said picture input means and said picture means are coupled together by communication means.