Image transducing apparatus

Claim 1

An image transducing apparatus comprising: means defining an object plane for supporting a fixed object to be imaged in an image plane; lens means for focusing the image of said object upon said image plane; photoelectric array transducing means having a first resolution and comprising a plurality of congruent, discrete, spaced apart transducing elements, arranged in an array, in said image plane for providing an electrical signal representative of the light intensity thereon; means for mechanically displacing said photoelectric array transducing means in said image plane, in two axes, in a plane parallel to said image plane, from a first position to a plurality of subsequent positions, wherein the distance from one position to ao immediate adjacent position is less than the dimension of a transducing element along the direction of said displacement; means for generating a first signal for moving said photoelectric array transducing means from one position to an intermediate position, approximately one-half the distance to an immediate adjacent subsequent position; means for receiving said first signal and for generating a second signal which is a first derivative thereof; means for receiving said second signal and for generating a third signal which is the absolute value thereof; one-shot means for receiving said third signal and for generating a fourth signal which is a one-shot shot clock signal, having a time constant approximately one-half the rate of said first signal; sample and hold means for receiving said fourth signal and said first signal and for generating a fifth signal therefrom; and means for combining said first and fifth signals to produce an output signal to control the movement of said photoelectric array transducing means means for generating an electrical signal from each transducing element of said photoelectric array at each of said subsequent positions; and means for combining said electrical signals from each of said subsequent positions to form an electrical representation of the image of said object having a second resolution greater than said first resolution.