Patent attributes
A submarine floating periscope comprising: (a) a floating base; (b) a scanning unit for scanning and acquiring images, and; (c) cables between the submarine and the periscope for maintaining the periscope in the vicinity of the submarine, and for enabling communication between the periscope and the submarine. The scanning unit comprises: (i) a transparent dome; (b) a two-degrees of freedom gimbals system in a hollow portion below the dome. The gimbals system includes a mechanism for changing the orientation of a plate within the hollow portion by applying rotation about two perpendicular axes; (c) a light sensing element, for sensing light coming from outside the dome thereby forming images, the sensing unit being positioned on said plate, preferably in its center; and (d) a modem for transferring images data and other data between the periscope and the submarine.