3D multispectral lidar
First Claim
1. A device for pixel correlating a passive spectral image with a lidar range image, comprising:
- (a) an electro-optical focal plane array for receiving light at a first given time that has been reflected from a first location, and producing image data signals therefrom;
(b) a lidar transceiver means for transmitting a first beam of light and receiving back-scattered light at a first given time that originated from said beam and has been reflected back from the first location, and producing distance data signals from said back-scattered light; and
(c) a means for electronically synchronizing a process of receiving the image data signals corresponding to the first location and the distance data signals corresponding to said first location, to thereby register the image data signal from the first location at the first given time at a first pixel and register the distance data signal from the first location at the first given time for a first beam of light.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A 3D MultiSpectral Lidar. The system comprises a laser transmitter light source, a laser detection assembly, optics that couple the outgoing and incoming laser signals, a digital camera assembly for collecting passive light, a position and orientation system, and processing hardware. The system provides real-time georectified three dimensional images and topography using an airborne platform. The system collects time-synchronous lidar range and image data in an optical receiver. The individual images are then mosaiced and orthorectified in real-time. The lidar range data and image data are then coupled to a position and orientation system to transform the three dimensional range images to a single geographically referenced multispectral three dimensional image.
201 Citations
83 Claims
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1. A device for pixel correlating a passive spectral image with a lidar range image, comprising:
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(a) an electro-optical focal plane array for receiving light at a first given time that has been reflected from a first location, and producing image data signals therefrom;
(b) a lidar transceiver means for transmitting a first beam of light and receiving back-scattered light at a first given time that originated from said beam and has been reflected back from the first location, and producing distance data signals from said back-scattered light; and
(c) a means for electronically synchronizing a process of receiving the image data signals corresponding to the first location and the distance data signals corresponding to said first location, to thereby register the image data signal from the first location at the first given time at a first pixel and register the distance data signal from the first location at the first given time for a first beam of light. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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38. A device for the production of georectified three dimensional imagery in real time, comprising:
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(a) an electro-optical focal plane array for receiving light at a first given time that has been reflected from a first location, and producing image data signals therefrom;
(b) a lidar transceiver means for transmitting a beam of light and receiving back-scattered light at a first given time that originated from said beam and has been reflected back from the first location, and producing distance data signals from said back-scattered light;
(c) a means for electronically synchronizing a process of receiving the image data signals corresponding to the first location and the distance data signals corresponding to said first location, to thereby register the image data signal from the first location at the first given time at a first pixel and register the distance data signal from the first location at the first given time for a first beam of light;
(d) a position and orientation system for tracking the position and orientation of said device, wherein said position and orientation system records the orientation of said device relative to three axes of a reference coordinate system, and wherein said position and orientation system further records the position of said device, in relation to the three axes of the reference coordinate system, relative to the origin of a reference coordinate system, to thereby produce position and orientation system data of the device; and
(e) a data processor for the generation of range images, wherein said range images are positioned in space such that the geographic location of each image pixel is placed in said pixel'"'"'s correct geographic location, wherein said data processor interpolates the range data for sub-pixels, wherein said sub-pixels are the pixels located between the beams of light and have no range data, and wherein the position and orientation system data is used to transform each pixel in the range image to it geographic coordinate.
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43. A method of producing real-time georectified three dimensional images and topography using an airborne platform, comprising the steps of:
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transmitting laser radiation through an optical scanner toward a target;
receiving the laser radiation reflected from said target through the optical scanner;
computing the distance from said platform to said target using the time of flight of said laser radiation, wherein said computation uses direct-detection or heterodyne techniques in the form of distance readouts;
collecting passive spectral radiation in an image collection means, wherein said image collection means has the same field of view as said optical scanner;
synchronizing the spectral image radiation with the distance readouts;
collecting position and orientation data with a position and orientation collecting means;
coupling the distance readouts and the image data with the position and orientation data; and
transforming the data into geographically referenced multispectral three dimensional images in real-time.
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44. A method for the collection and processing of image data, lidar range data, and POS data, comprising:
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(a) sequentially receiving electronic distance data from a lidar transceiver, wherein said data comprises a computed distance between an object of interest and a sensor, and wherein said data is registered at a first location of the object of interest at a first given time;
(b) sequentially receiving electronic spectral data from an electro-optical focal plane array, wherein said focal plane array further comprises a digital camera which records data at known pixels, and wherein said data is registered at each pixel from a first location of the object of interest at a first given time; and
(c) sequentially building a spectrally textured range image from said electronic distance data and said electronic spectral data, wherein said distance data and said spectral data are combined such that the distance data and the spectral data are co-registered for the first location of the object of interest at the first given time. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80)
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81. A device for the production of geographically referenced multispectral three dimensional images, comprising;
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an optical bench for controlling the direction and focus of outgoing laser radiation, incoming reflected laser radiation, and incoming passive spectral radiation, wherein said optical bench directs the outgoing laser radiation to a specific solid angle within a field of view, wherein said optical bench further captures the reflected laser radiation from the same solid angle of the field of view and directs said reflected laser radiation to a lidar receiver, and wherein said optical bench captures the passive spectral radiation from the same solid angle of the field of view and directs the captured passive spectral radiation to a digital camera;
an electro-optical focal plane array for collecting passive spectral radiation from the optical bench, wherein said array comprises an array of spectral detectors mounted on the focal plane of a digital camera, wherein said spectral detectors measure the passive spectral radiation reflected from an object at a first given time that has been reflected from a first location;
a lidar transceiver for collecting lidar distance data at a first given time that has been reflected from an object at a first location from the optical bench, wherein said transceiver comprises a lidar transmitter for emitting laser radiation and a lidar receiver for receiving said laser radiation, wherein said radiation is reflected by an object, and wherein said transceiver further comprises a time of flight computer, wherein said computer computes the distance the laser radiation traveled using time-of-flight energy-detection techniques;
a means for electronically synchronizing a process of receiving the passive spectral radiation corresponding to the object at the first location at the first given time and the distance data signals corresponding to said object at the first location at the first given time, wherein said means registers the image data signal from the first location at the first given time at a first pixel, and wherein said means registers the distance data signal from the first location at the first given time for the laser radiation;
a position and orientation system for tracking the position and orientation of said device, wherein said position and orientation system records the orientation of said device relative to three axes of a reference coordinate system, and wherein said position and orientation system further records the position of said device, in relation to the three axes of the reference coordinate system, relative to the origin of a reference coordinate system, to thereby produce position and orientation system data of the device;
control electronics for sending signals to the means for synchronizing and the position and orientation system, wherein said control electronics first sends a signal to the lidar transmitter to request the lidar transmitter to transmit laser radiation to the optical bench, wherein said control electronics further sends a signal to the means for synchronizing, wherein said means sends a signal to the digital camera to collect passive spectral radiation from the same solid angle of the field of view in the optical bench, wherein said control electronics sends a signal to the position and orientation system such that said position and orientation data from the position and orientation system are sent to a rectification processor in order to position the images in space, and wherein said control electronics repeatedly sends said signals to initiate the above-described sequence in a manner such that the synchronized distance data and electronic spectral data are sent to the data processor in sequence;
a data processor for the generation of range images, wherein said data processor receives synchronized distance data from the lidar transceiver and electronic spectral data from the digital camera, wherein said distance data and spectral data are received in sequence, wherein said data processor sequentially builds a spectrally textured range image, wherein said range images are positioned in space such that the geographic location of each image pixel is placed in said pixel'"'"'s correct geographic location, wherein said data processor interpolates the range data for sub-pixels, wherein said sub-pixels are the pixels located between the laser shots and have no range data; and
a rectification processor for rectifying the relative position and orientation of the spectrally textured range image to an absolute position and orientation within a global coordinate system, wherein said rectification processor rectifies each pixel in the range image to its geographic coordinate in space with the position and orientation system data.
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82. A device for the production of a spectrally textured range images in real time, comprising:
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a noodle-shaped electro-optical focal plane array, wherein said array comprises a 2600×
40 element two-dimensional array of spectral detectors mounted on the focal plane of a digital camera, wherein said spectral detectors comprise measure the red, green, and blue passive spectral radiation from objects;
a three-beam lidar transceiver, wherein said transceiver comprises a transmitter for emitting a laser range-finding signal and a receiver for receiving the laser range-finding signal, wherein said transmitter comprises a Nd;
YAG laser, wherein said transmitter simultaneously emits three beams of laser radiation, and wherein said receiver comprises a one-dimensional array of three IR-enhanced Silicon avalanche photo diode detectors that measure the returning laser radiation;
a synchronizing means for electronically synchronizing the process of reading out the passive spectral image and the lidar range image, wherein said synchronizing means collects data from the spectral detector within a region of interest that corresponds with the scan direction of the three lidar beams at a given point in time; and
a position and orientation system, wherein said position and orientation system comprises a sensor platform orientation means and positioning means, wherein said orientation comprises three orthogonal rotation angles relative to the three axes of a reference coordinate system as determined by an intertial navigation system, and wherein said positioning means comprises the three orthogonal displacements relative to the origin of a reference coordinate system as determined by a global positioning system.
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83. A device for pixel correlating a passive spectral image with a lidar range image, comprising:
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(a) an electro-optical focal plane array for receiving light at a first given time that has been reflected from a first location, and producing image data signals therefrom;
(b) a lidar transceiver means for transmitting a first beam of light and receiving back-scattered light at a first given time that originated from said beam and has been reflected back from the first location, and producing distance data signals from said back-scattered light; and
(c) a means for electronically synchronizing a process of (i) receiving the image data signals corresponding to the first location and the distance data signals corresponding to said first location, and (ii) combining said image data signals and distance data signals, to thereby produce a spectrally textured range image of the first location.
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Specification