SPLIT APERTURE CAPTURE OF RANGEMAP FOR 3D IMAGING

• US 20100103276A1
• Filed: 10/28/2008
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Original Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Inventors: Border, John N.
• Application Number:
  US12/259,348
• Publication Number:
  US 20100103276A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/97 Determining parameters from multiple pictures depth or shape recovery from multiple images G06T7/55; stereo camera calibration G06T7/85
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/207 using a single 2D image sensor

Abstract

An image capture system that can capture images as well as rangemaps, includes a split aperture device having a first and a second states and used to capture one or more image pairs that includes a first image captured during the first state and a second image captured during the second state. The image capture system also includes a rangemap generator coupled to the split aperture device, the rangemap generator generates a rangemap by comparing local image shifts between the first image and the second image. A method is also described for capturing of rangemap information for 3D imaging.

Claims

1. An image capture system that can capture images as well as rangemaps, comprising:

a split aperture device having a first and a second state and used to capture one or more image pairs that include a first image captured during the first state and a second image captured during the second state; and

a rangemap generator coupled to the split aperture device, the rangemap generator generates a rangemap by comparing local image shifts between the first image and the second image.

2. An image capture system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

an image processor for merging the first and second images in order to form a full image.

3. An image capture system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

an image processor for merging the first and second images in the one or more image pairs to generate a video with ½

the frame rate that the first and second images are captured at.

4. An image capture system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

an image processor for merging the last available first and second images from the same or different image pairs to generate a video with a frame rate that is the same as the frame rate that the first and second images are captured at.

5. An image capture system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a sensor that includes pixels with high sensitivity and pixels with low sensitivity coupled to the image processor.

6. An image capture system as defined in claim 5, further comprising:

a sensor that includes color pixels and panchromatic pixels coupled to the image processor.

7. An image capture system as defined in claim 5, wherein images comprised of high sensitivity pixels can be captured separately from images comprised of low sensitivity pixels.

8. An image capture system as defined in claim 5 wherein high sensitivity pixel images and low sensitivity pixel images can be simultaneously captured with different exposure times.

9. An image capture system as defined in claim 5 wherein the high sensitivity pixel images are used to create rangemaps.

10. An image capture system as defined in claim 9, wherein the low sensitivity pixel images are used to create an image for display or storage.

11. An image capture system as defined in claim 1, wherein the split aperture device includes an electromechanical half aperture blocker.

12. An image capture system as defined in claim 2, wherein the fill image is used with the rangemap to create a 3D image file, a 3D print or a 3D display.

13. An image capture system as defined in claim 5, wherein two high sensitivity pixel images are captured during the time that each low sensitivity pixel image is captured.

14. An image capture system as defined in claim 1, wherein the split aperture device includes a liquid crystal half aperture blocker.

15. An image capture system as defined in claim 10, wherein the image for display or storage is used with the rangemap to create a 3D image file or a 3D display.

16. A method for capturing images as well as rangemaps using an image capture device, comprising:

capturing one or more image pairs using a split aperture device that captures a first image during a first state and a second image during a second state; and

generating a rangemap by comparing local image shifts between the first image and the second image.

17. A method as defined in claim 16, further comprising:

merging the first and second images in order to form a full image.

18. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein the full image is used with the rangemap to create a 3D image file, a 3D print or a 3D display.

19. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the rangemap is generated line by line during the readout of the image pairs.

20. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the capturing of one or more image pairs using a split aperture device includes using an electromechanical half aperture blocker.