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Integrated system for quickly and accurately imaging and modeling three-dimensional objects

  • US 6,473,079 B1
  • Filed: 10/23/1998
  • Issued: 10/29/2002
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/24/1996
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method for automatically segmenting a scan field of a scene into subsets of points that represent different surfaces in the scene, comprising the steps of:

  • separating the scan field into a depth grid that includes depth information for scanned points of surfaces in the scene and a normal grid that includes an estimate of a normal to scanned points of the surfaces;

    convolving the depth information of the depth grid to generate a depth rating image whose values represent a gradient of depth change from one scanned point to another scanned point in the scene;

    convolving the components of the normal grid to generate a scalar value for each component for each point of the normal grid, for each point of the normal grid, determining from the scalar values for the components of that particular point a gradient of the normal at that point, wherein the gradients determined for the points of the normal grid collectively constitute a normal rating image;

    converting the depth rating image to a binary depth image using a recursive thresholding technique;

    converting the normal rating image to a binary normal image using a recursive thresholding technique;

    combining the binary depth image and the binary normal image to determine a single edge image; and

    grouping subsets of non-edge points as belonging to corresponding surfaces of the scene.

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