A conical mirror pipeline inspection system

Presents a novel system that provides high quality imaging of the interior surface of pipelines. The imaging device uses a refined conical mirror micro-surface machined from aluminum to image a 360/spl deg/ strip of the pipe in a single frame. A continuous stream of such images is transmitted to the surface where it is stored on a standard video recorder. The image sequences are processed off-line, ultimately producing high definition imagery of areas of interest. We address the design issues of the conic profile of the mirror, and some aspects of the image reconstruction/registration process.