Spatial imaging system
First Claim
1. A fully automatic method of providing spatial imaging information relating to objects in a field of view, comprising:
- continually varying the focus of a variable focus lens system to scan said field at a predetermined rate thereby to provide a multiplicity of image planes covering the scanned field, said lens system having a depth of field shallow relative to the field to be scanned, anddetecting in-focus images of said objects as said field is scanned; and
determining the location of each of the in-focus images relative to the entire field of view as said field is being scanned to provide three-dimensional spatial imaging information.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A spatial imaging system includes a variable focus lens for scanning a visual field. The depth of field of the lens system is narrow relative to the range of the field to be scanned so that visual in-focus image planes of the entire field can be obtained as the focal plane is scanned in range. Detection of in-focus objects may be accomplished by converting the scanned image of each plane into electrical signals which can be filtered or otherwise discriminated to identify in-focus areas. The individual image planes may be stored in memory and processed to provide information of interest regarding the objects within the field of view. Such information may include identification, detection, color, shape, etc. and it exists in machine-usable form.
-
Citations
21 Claims
-
1. A fully automatic method of providing spatial imaging information relating to objects in a field of view, comprising:
-
continually varying the focus of a variable focus lens system to scan said field at a predetermined rate thereby to provide a multiplicity of image planes covering the scanned field, said lens system having a depth of field shallow relative to the field to be scanned, and detecting in-focus images of said objects as said field is scanned; and determining the location of each of the in-focus images relative to the entire field of view as said field is being scanned to provide three-dimensional spatial imaging information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
9. Apparatus for providing spatial imaging information relating to objects in a three-dimensional field, comprising:
-
a lens system having a depth of field shallow relative to the range of said field; means for continually varying the focus of said lens system to scan said field in range, means responsive to said lens system for detecting each of the image planes scanned by said lens system containing an in-focus image, said means for detecting operating continuously as said field is scanned in range; and means responsive to said detecting means for determining the positions of said image planes relative to said field of view to provide three-dimensional spatial imaging information. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A three-dimensional vision system comprising:
-
a variable focus imaging lens system having a shallow depth of field, focus control means connected to said lens system and focusing said system at successive focal planes of successively different ranges, a video scanner responsive to said lens system for producing electrical video signals having amplitudes related to light intensity of each image produced by said lens system at said successive focal planes, a high pass filter connected to receive said electrical video signals and passing only high frequency components thereof representing edges and texture of in-focus portions of each image, and computer means connected to receive edge and texture information of said high frequency signals and connected to said focus control means for correlating said edge information to the range of successive focal planes for producing a three-dimensional representation of a field of view of said lens system.
-
Specification