Apparatus and Method for Obtaining Surface Texture Information
First Claim
1. An apparatus for obtaining surface texture information, the apparatus comprising:
- an illumination source for illuminating a sample space and an imaging sensor for capturing images of the sample space;
wherein the effective position of the illumination source and the image sensor with respect to a sample space is substantially constant and the sample space is configured to allow the orientation of a sample with respect to the illumination source to be altered; and
a processor for processing the captured images to allow surface texture information to be obtained from the sample.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for obtaining surface texture information using photometric stereo. The material for which surface height and reflectance function information is desired (“the material”) is illuminated with an illumination source emitting electromagnetic waves, preferably in the form of white light, which is consequently reflected by the material to be scanned into an imaging sensor. The position and orientation of the illumination source relative to the sensor is constant. The material is placed within or on top of a holding apparatus, such as a pane of glass, which is oriented in order to keep the illumination vector constant with respect to the imaged surface. The illumination source and sensor are moved in unison across the surface in order to progressively capture a complete image of the surface; this operation may be facilitated in practice through the use of hardware such as a flatbed scanner.
20 Citations
50 Claims
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1. An apparatus for obtaining surface texture information, the apparatus comprising:
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an illumination source for illuminating a sample space and an imaging sensor for capturing images of the sample space;
wherein the effective position of the illumination source and the image sensor with respect to a sample space is substantially constant and the sample space is configured to allow the orientation of a sample with respect to the illumination source to be altered; anda processor for processing the captured images to allow surface texture information to be obtained from the sample. - 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)
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28. A method of obtaining surface texture information, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving n unregistered images; defining a reference image; registering unregistered floating images by obtaining a transformation for transforming at least some of (n−
1) floating images to spatially align them with the reference image; andperforming a photometric stereo technique to produce sample texture information. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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Specification