Automatic TV ranging system
First Claim
1. A TV system for the automatic quantitative ranging on at least a single remote, non-cooperating, passive object comprising:
- means for presenting a scene containing said object on a light-sensitive mosaic of a line-scannable image sensing means in the form of a pair of side-by-side split-screen stereo images of said scene;
means for scanning said mosaic in a horizontal sequence of scanning lines for successively analyzing the image energy along said scanning lines and deriving output signals proportional to the light energy of features of said stereo object images, each of said scanning lines having a predetermined number of scan points;
means for counting the scan points in each image of the stereo image pair in each scanning line to said features of said object in each scene from the left side of each image pair such that the parallax displacement Δ
of corresponding object features in the two stereo images can be determined; and
means for processing said parallax displacements and producing an output indication of the range characterized by said parallax displacements.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A range-finding system comprising the hardwired video processing of two side-by-side TV stereo images of a scene to provide automatic, rapid, quantitative ranging to noncooperative objects. A single TV camera with appropriate optics to provide stereo inputs or, in a preferred embodiment, two TV cameras, provide the stereo images. Range is determined for any change of contrast in the common TV stereo scene to obtain the parallax displacement of corresponding object features with a three scan line delay of less than 200 microseconds. The video of the synchronized line scan of both cameras is stored as they are scanned, thus range can be determined with relative motion between the stereo camera and objects in the scene. Range is stored in on-board RAM'"'"'s for each pixel of the TV scene and is available after three TV lines of delay. Range up-dating is continuous as the TV raster is scanned, or the range of a particular TV frame may be frozen for detailed study. Any part of the electromagnetic spectrum that can provide TV imagery can be used in the ranging system.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A TV system for the automatic quantitative ranging on at least a single remote, non-cooperating, passive object comprising:
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means for presenting a scene containing said object on a light-sensitive mosaic of a line-scannable image sensing means in the form of a pair of side-by-side split-screen stereo images of said scene; means for scanning said mosaic in a horizontal sequence of scanning lines for successively analyzing the image energy along said scanning lines and deriving output signals proportional to the light energy of features of said stereo object images, each of said scanning lines having a predetermined number of scan points; means for counting the scan points in each image of the stereo image pair in each scanning line to said features of said object in each scene from the left side of each image pair such that the parallax displacement Δ
of corresponding object features in the two stereo images can be determined; andmeans for processing said parallax displacements and producing an output indication of the range characterized by said parallax displacements. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A TV system for the automatic quantitative ranging on at least a single remote, non-cooperating, passive object comprising:
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a pair of side-by-side TV cameras spaced a distance d apart, said pair consisting of a left camera and a right camera generating a split-screen stereo image of a scene containing at least said object; scanning means associated with each camera for simultaneously scanning both camera stereo-images from left to right in a horizontal sequence of scanning lines and generating left and right camera video output signals proportional to the light energy of the scanning points, each camera scanning line having predetermined number of scan points; means for converting the analog video output of said cameras to a digitized form; switching means for switching said digitized signals representing the stereo images of said left and right cameras for the simultaneous storing of said signals into left and right respectively random access memory means; forward and backward scanning processors in a time-sharing arrangement with counting means for addressing said memory means, said processors having means for comparing signals from said left memory means with signals from said right memory means to determine time differences Δ
for corresponding changes of contrast indicated by said video output signals and characterizing the spatial parallax displacements of corresponding objects in said stereo images, said time differences Δ
being stored in a Δ
memory means;accessing means for the address scanning of said Δ
memory means and for providing an output to a reciprocal read-only memory means, said reciprocal memory means having look-up means for converting Δ
to range and outputting said range to range storage and utilizing means. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method for the automatic quantitative ranging on at least a single remote, non-cooperating, passive object P comprising the steps of:
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spacing a pair of TV cameras a distance d apart, said pair consisting of a left camera and a right camera, said cameras providing a line-scannable light-sensitive image mosaic in the form of a pair of side-by-side split-screen stereo images of a scene containing at least said object P, said cameras each having a FOV subtending an angle α
, the width W of said FOV'"'"'s at different ranges from said cameras varying with the range R, there being a specific width for a specific range ##EQU10## scanning said stereo image pair mosaic in a horizontal sequence of scanning lines having a predetermined number C of scan points in each scan line in each image of said stereo pair;analyzing the image energy along said scanning lines to derive output signals proportional to the light energy of features such as object P such that a count l of scanning points from the left side to object P in said left FOV and a count r from the left side to object P in said right FOV can be derived; subtracting count r from count l to obtain the difference Δ
which is the equivalent of distance such that ##EQU11## whereby the range to object P in the combined FOV'"'"'s is ##EQU12## where K is a design parameter ##EQU13## - View Dependent Claims (34)
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33. A method for the automatic quantitative ranging on at least a single remote, non-cooperating, passive object P comprising the steps of:
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spacing a pair of TV cameras a distance d apart, said pair consisting of a left camera and a right camera, said cameras providing a line-scannable light-sensitive image mosaic in the form of a pair of side-by-side split-screen stereo images of a scene containing at least said object P, said cameras each having a FOV subtending an angle α
, the width W of said FOV'"'"'s at different ranges from said cameras varying with the range R, there being a specific width for a specific range ##EQU14## scanning said stereo image pair mosaic in a horizontal sequence of scanning lines having a predetermined number C of scan points in each scan line in each image of said stereo pair;analyzing the image energy along said scanning lines to derive output signals proportional to the light energy of features such as said object P such that a count 1 of scanning points from the right side to object P in said left FOV and a count r from the right side to object P in said right FOV can be derived; subtracting count l from count r to obtain the difference Δ
which is the equivalent of distance such that ##EQU15## whereby the range to object P in the combined FOV'"'"'s is ##EQU16## where K is a design parameter ##EQU17##
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35. A method for the automatic quantitative ranging on at least a single remote, non-cooperating, passive object comprising the steps of:
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presenting a scene containing said object on a light-sensitive mosaic of a line-scannable image sensing means in the form of a pair of side-by-side split-screen stereo images of said scene; scanning said mosaic in a horizontal sequence of scanning lines for successively analyzing the image energy along said scanning lines and deriving output signals proportional to the light energy of features of said stereo object images, each of said scanning lines having a predetermined number of scan points; counting the scan points in each image of the stereo image pair in each scanning line to said features of said object in each scene from the left side of each image pair such that the parallax displacement Δ
of corresponding object features in the two stereo images can be determined; andprocessing said parallax displacements and producing an output indicative of the range characterized by said parallax displacements. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37)
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Specification