Surface contruction using combined photographic and structured light information

• US 20060268153A1
• Filed: 05/04/2006
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xenogen Corporation (Revvity, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Xenogen Corporation (Revvity, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rice, Bradley W., Xu, Heng, Kuo, Chaincy
• Granted Patent: US 8,044,996 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/370
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0059 using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence A61B5/0093, A61B5/1455, A61B5/02416 and A61B5/0261 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1077 Measuring of profiles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1079 using optical or photographic means
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/25 by projecting a pattern, e.g. one or more lines, moiré fringes on the object G01B11/255 takes precedence ; image analysis for depth or shape recovery G06T7/50
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/6439 with indicators, stains, dyes, tags, labels, marks
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/532 with measurement of scattering and transmission
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/6428 Measuring fluorescence of fluorescent products of reactions or of fluorochrome labelled reactive substances, e.g. measuring quenching effects, using measuring "optrodes" in vivo A61B5/00; immunoassay G01N33/53
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/6456 Spatial resolved fluorescence measurements; Imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/763 Bioluminescence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/521 from laser ranging, e.g. using interferometry; from the projection of structured light

Abstract

The invention relates to topographic construction that combines photographic and structured light information. The dual modality construction acquires structured light information for an object and photographic images from multiple views about the object. Topographic construction then processes the structured light information and photographic data in the multiple images to generate a surface representation of the object in each modality. The photographic and structured light surface representations are then combined to output a dual modality surface topography.

Claims

1. A method of constructing a topographic representation of at least a portion of an object;

the method comprising;

obtaining at least one photographic image of the object that includes photographic information;

obtaining a structured light image of the object that includes structured light information; and

constructing the topographic representation of at least the portion of the object using a combination of topographic information from the structured light image and topographic information from the photographic image.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising assessing quality in the structured light image

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

generating a quality mask that indicates portions of the structured light image that include low quality structured light information; and

applying the quality mask to the structured light information to eliminate the low quality structured light information.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein creating the topographic representation includes replacing the low quality structured light information with the photographic topographic information.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the photographic information is processed using back-projection to determine the surface topography.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the structured light information includes topographic information in a concave feature of the object.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising co-registering the structured light information and photographic information.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising capturing low intensity light emitted from within the object due to presence of a bioluminescent or fluorescent marker.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the object has a surface radiance between about 10³ to about 10¹⁰ photons/second/centimeter squared/steradian.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the object is a living mammal.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the mammal is a mouse.

12. A method of constructing a topographic representation of at least a portion of an object;

the method comprising;

obtaining multiple photographic images of the object that correspond to multiple views of the object relative to at least one camera;

constructing a topographic representation of at least a portion of the object by processing the multiple photographic images using a back-projection algorithm;

obtaining a structured light image that includes topographic information of the object; and

constructing the topographic representation of at least the portion of the object using a combination of the structured light topographic information and topographic information from the photographic topographic representation.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the multiple views include between about 4 and about 30 views of the object relative to at least one camera.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the multiple views are obtained by moving a stage, that the object rests upon, relative to the at least one camera.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising obtaining a second structured light image for a different view of the object.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising stitching together topographic representations for the first structured light image and the second structured light image.

17. An imaging system for creating a topographic representation of at least a portion of an object;

the system comprising;

at least one camera configured to capture a photographic image of the object;

a structured light source adapted to cast structured light onto the object and generate structured light information; and

a processor that uses instructions stored in memory to construct the topographic representation of at least the portion of the object using a combination of topographic information from a structured light image captured by the at least one camera when structured light is cast onto the object and topographic information from a photographic image captured by the at least one camera.

18. The system of claim 17 further including a stage that the object rests upon during photographic image capture.

19. The system in claim 18 where a bottom of the stage is transparent to visible light

20. The system in claim 19 where the bottom is constructed from a grid of nylon threads.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein the stage and the at least one camera permit motion relative to each other to permit multiple views of the object relative to the at least one camera.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the stage is configured to move relative to the at least one camera.

23. The system of claim 17 further including an imaging chamber adapted to receive the object during photographic image capture with the at least one camera.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the at least one camera includes a single camera that is attached to a wall of the imaging chamber.

25. The system of claim 17 wherein the structured light source includes a laser scanning galvanometer.

26. The system of claim 25 where the structured light source consists of an LED illuminated grating that is optically projected onto the subject.

27. A computer readable medium including instructions for creating a topographic representation for at least a portion of an object, the instructions comprising:

instructions for obtaining at least one photographic image of the object that includes photographic information;

instructions for obtaining a structured light image of the object that includes structured light information; and

instructions for constructing the topographic representation of at least the portion of the object using a combination of topographic information from the structured light image and topographic information from the photographic image.