Camera for measuring distance to object

• US 20030234869A1
• Filed: 06/21/2002
• Published: 12/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Asia Optical Company Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Asian Optical Company Limited
• Inventors: Hung, Chin-Wei, Liou, Charles, Lin, Chih-Hsiang, Huang, Jui-Feng, Chien, Pie-Yau, Chung, Lung-Pin, Liu, Hua-Tang, Liu, Te-Wei, Lee, Hsin-Feng, Chen, Chih-Hui
• Application Number:
  US10/177,006
• Publication Number:
  US 20030234869A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/207.99
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/08 for measuring distance only indirect measurement G01S17/46; active triangulation systems G01S17/48
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/86 Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/88 Lidar systems specially adapted for specific applications

Abstract

A camera for measuring the distance to an object is combined with a laser range measuring device by using a beam splitting device so as to simultaneously take the image of the object and measure the distance between the camera and the object. Using the focal length of the lens, the width and height of the image on the image detector, and the distance between the camera and the object, it is then possible to compute the width and height of the object according to the geometrical optics. By means of obtaining the speed of the image moving on the image detector, the camera of the invention further computes the speed of the object which is projected on a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the lens.

Claims

1. A camera for measuring the distance to an object, comprising:

a lens, having an optical axis and forming an image for the object;

an image detector, placed at the back focal position of the lens to detect the image and to covert the image into an image signal;

a microprocessor, controlling the image detector to detect the image and processing the image;

an image display, receiving and displaying the image signal from the image detector and the microprocessor;

a laser range-measuring device, controlled by the microprocessor to emit a single-wavelength beam for measuring the distance between the camera and the object; and

a beam splitting device, placed on the optical axis of the lens, wherein the beam splitting device guides the single-wavelength beam to the object and the image to the image detector.

2. The camera for measuring the distance to an object as claimed in claim 1, wherein the laser range-measuring device further comprises:

a light emitter, emitting the single-wavelength beam, wherein the single-wavelength beam passes the lens by the beam splitting device and is incident on the object, and the object reflects the single-wavelength beam; and

a light receiver, receiving the single-wavelength beam reflected from the object and outputing an electric signal;

wherein the microprocessor processes the electric signal to obtain the distance between the camera and the object.

3. The camera for measuring the distance to an object as claimed in claim 2, wherein the microprocessor further comprises:

a range signal processor, processing the electric signal and outputing a range signal;

an image processor, processing the image signal from the image detector; and

a CPU (Central Processing Unit), controlling the light emitter to emit the single-wavelength beam, computing the distance between the camera and the object according to the range signal, and outputting the image signal processed by the image processor to the image display.

4. The camera for measuring the distance to an object as claimed in claim 1 further comprising:

an aperture, controlled by the microprocessor for adjusting the exposure; and

a motor, controlled by the microprocessor for adjusting the focal length of the lens.

5. The camera of claim 1, wherein the image detector is a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device).

6. The camera of claim 2, wherein the light emitter is a semiconductor emitter and the light receiver is an avalanche photodiode receiver.