Ranging apparatus
First Claim
1. A ranging apparatus comprising an illumination means for illuminating a scene with a projected two dimensional array of light spots, a detector for detecting the location of spots in the scene and a processor adapted to determine, from the detected location of a spot in the scene, the range to that spot.
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Abstract
This invention relates to a ranging apparatus capable of ranging simultaneously to a three dimensional scene. An illumination means (22) illuminates a scene with a two dimensional array of spots (12). A detector (6) is located near to the illumination means (22) and arranged to look toward the scene. A processor (7) responds to the output from the detector (6) and, from the location of a spot in the image of the scene, determines the range to that spot. A variety of techniques are used to resolve ambiguity in determining which projected spot is being considered.
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Citations
63 Claims
- 1. A ranging apparatus comprising an illumination means for illuminating a scene with a projected two dimensional array of light spots, a detector for detecting the location of spots in the scene and a processor adapted to determine, from the detected location of a spot in the scene, the range to that spot.
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55. An image recorder having a large depth of field comprising an illumination means for illuminating a scene with an array of spots and an imaging array for recording an image of the scene characterised in the illumination means is adapted to illuminate the scene such that the location of spots in the recorded image can be used to give a determination of range without any ambiguity.
- 56. A method of obtaining range information about a scene comprising the steps of illuminating the scene with an array of spots, taking an image of the spots in the scene, uniquely identifying each spot in the scene and determining, from the location of each spot in the scene the range to that spot.
Specification