Light-directed ranging system implementing single camera system for telerobotics applications
First Claim
1. A ranging system for telerobotics applications, comprising:
- a single video camera having a lens;
a directional light source offset from said video camera, said directional light source selectively illuminating a portion of a selected target within the field of view of said video camera, said lens of said single video camera comprising means for forming an image of said illuminated portion of said selected target in the focal plane of said video camera;
a frame grabber for capturing a video frame generated by said video camera and containing said image of said illuminated portion of said selected target;
a robotic device; and
a processor electrically coupled to said video camera and said robotic device, said processor including a ranging algorithm for determining the range to said target based upon a comparison between the position of the image of said illuminated target portion formed by said lens of said video camera in the focal plane of said video camera and contained in said video frame, and the position of a reference point located in said focal plane.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A laser-directed ranging system has utility for use in various fields, such as telerobotics applications and other applications involving physically handicapped individuals. The ranging system includes a single video camera and a directional light source such as a laser mounted on a camera platform, and a remotely positioned operator. In one embodiment, the position of the camera platform is controlled by three servo motors to orient the roll axis, pitch axis and yaw axis of the video cameras, based upon an operator input such as head motion. The laser is offset vertically and horizontally from the camera, and the laser/camera platform is directed by the user to point the laser and the camera toward a target device. The image produced by the video camera is processed to eliminate all background images except for the spot created by the laser. This processing is performed by creating a digital image of the target prior to illumination by the laser, and then eliminating common pixels from the subsequent digital image which includes the laser spot. A reference point is defined at a point in the video frame, which may be located outside of the image area of the camera. The disparity between the digital image of the laser spot and the reference point is calculated for use in a ranging analysis to determine range to the target.
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Citations
41 Claims
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1. A ranging system for telerobotics applications, comprising:
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a single video camera having a lens; a directional light source offset from said video camera, said directional light source selectively illuminating a portion of a selected target within the field of view of said video camera, said lens of said single video camera comprising means for forming an image of said illuminated portion of said selected target in the focal plane of said video camera; a frame grabber for capturing a video frame generated by said video camera and containing said image of said illuminated portion of said selected target; a robotic device; and a processor electrically coupled to said video camera and said robotic device, said processor including a ranging algorithm for determining the range to said target based upon a comparison between the position of the image of said illuminated target portion formed by said lens of said video camera in the focal plane of said video camera and contained in said video frame, and the position of a reference point located in said focal plane. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An apparatus for determining range to a target, comprising:
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a directional light source operable to selectively illuminate a portion of a target to selectively create an illuminated spot on said target; a video camera for generating an image of said illuminated spot on a video frame; and a computer operably associated with said video camera for determining the range to said target by comparing said image of said spot to a reference point located within the plane of said video frame to determine disparity. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method for determining range to a target using a single video camera, comprising the steps of:
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(a) capturing a first image of a target; (b) activating a directional light source to form an illuminated spot on a portion of said target; (c) capturing a second image of the target while the light source is directed onto the portion of said target; (d) generating a third image of the target by eliminating common elements of the first and second set of images; and (e) determining range to the target based upon remaining elements in the third image. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A method for remotely controlling a robotic device to manipulate a target device, comprising the steps of:
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(a) remotely viewing the target device; (b) capturing a video image of said target device; (c) activating a laser to generate a spot on said target device; (d) capturing a video image of said target device with said spot thereon; (e) eliminating common pixels between said video image captured in step (b) and said video image captured in step (d) to obtain a video image of said spot in a focal plane of the video camera; (f) determining disparity between said video image obtained in step (e) and a reference point in said focal plane; (g) calculating range to said target device based upon said disparity determination; (h) positioning said robotic device to contact said target device based upon said range calculation. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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Specification