Three dimensional optical scanning
First Claim
1. A method of determining the color and profile of a target surface, comprising the steps of:
- scanning the target surface with an incident light beam containing a plurality of component wavelengths;
forming a beam of light reflected from said target surface;
passing said reflected beam through a wavelength separator to form one or more separate sub-beams corresponding to the component wavelength or wavelengths of the reflected beam;
directing said one or more sub-beams onto a sensor array located downstream of said wavelength separator;
detecting the positions of said one or more sub-beams on said sensor array as said incident beam moves over the target surface;
directing at least a portion of the reflected beam onto wavelength sensitive photodetector means separate from said sensor array to obtain data representative of the approximate wavelength composition of said reflected beam;
determining the color and profile of the target surface from the relative positions and shapes of peaks produced by said one or more sub-beams on said sensor array; and
using said data representative of the approximate wavelength composition to determine the wavelength identity of said one or more peaks when ambiguities in the wavelength identity of said peaks arise due to the absence of one or more said component wavelengths in the reflected beam.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method of determining the color and profile of a target surface involves scanning the target surface with an incident light beam containing a plurality of component wavelengths, forming a beam of light reflected from the target surface and synchronized with the incident beam; and splitting the reflected beam into separate sub-beams of different wavelengths. The sub-beams are directed onto a sensor array to permit their relative positions to be determined as the incident beam moves over the target surface. A portion of the reflected beam is directed onto a color sensitive photodetector to obtain data representative of the approximate color composition of the reflected beam. The color and profile of the target surface is determined from the relative positions of the sub-beams on said sensor array using the data representative of the approximate wavelength composition to resolve ambiguities in the results. The split portion of the reflected beam can also be sampled at a higher rate than the sensor array to obtain information about the appearance of the surface at a higher resolution than possible with the sensor array alone.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method of determining the color and profile of a target surface, comprising the steps of:
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scanning the target surface with an incident light beam containing a plurality of component wavelengths;
forming a beam of light reflected from said target surface;
passing said reflected beam through a wavelength separator to form one or more separate sub-beams corresponding to the component wavelength or wavelengths of the reflected beam;
directing said one or more sub-beams onto a sensor array located downstream of said wavelength separator;
detecting the positions of said one or more sub-beams on said sensor array as said incident beam moves over the target surface;
directing at least a portion of the reflected beam onto wavelength sensitive photodetector means separate from said sensor array to obtain data representative of the approximate wavelength composition of said reflected beam;
determining the color and profile of the target surface from the relative positions and shapes of peaks produced by said one or more sub-beams on said sensor array; and
using said data representative of the approximate wavelength composition to determine the wavelength identity of said one or more peaks when ambiguities in the wavelength identity of said peaks arise due to the absence of one or more said component wavelengths in the reflected beam. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of determining the profile of a target surface, comprising the steps of:
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scanning the target surface with an incident light beam;
forming a beam of light reflected from said target surface;
directing said reflected beam onto a sensor array to create an intensity profile signal;
sampling said intensity profile signal at a first sampling rate fc to create a first set of data points representing the intensity distribution on said array in each sampling period;
directing at least a portion of the reflected beam onto photodetector means to obtain an output signal representative of the intensity of said reflected beam;
sampling said output signal at a second sampling rate fp significantly higher than said first sampling rate fc to create second data points representative of intensity in each sampling period at said second sampling rate; and
deriving from said first set of data points a third set of data representative of the relative position of said reflected beam on said sensor array as said beam scans said surface while using said second data to provide additional information at a higher resolution about the appearance of the surface within each sampling period at said first sampling rate. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An apparatus for determining the color and profile of a target surface, comprising:
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a light source for scanning the target surface with an incident light beam containing a plurality of component wavelengths;
a lens for forming a beam of light reflected from said target surface;
a wavelength separator for splitting the reflected beam into a plurality of sub-beams corresponding to the component wavelengths of the reflected beam;
a sensor array located downstream of said sensor array for sensing said sub-beams and permitting the positions of said sub-beams to be detected as said incident beam moves over the target surface; and
a wavelength sensitive photodetector, separate from said sensor array, receiving at least a portion of the reflected beam to obtain data representative of the approximate wavelength composition of said reflected beam;
whereby the color and profile of the target surface can be determined from the positions and shapes of peaks produced by said sub-beams on said sensor array, and said data representative of the approximate wavelength composition can be used to determine the wavelength identity of said sub-beams when ambiguities arise due to the absence of one or more component wavelengths in the reflected beam. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. An apparatus for determining the profile of a target surface,:
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a light source for scanning the target surface with an incident light beam;
a lens for forming a beam of light reflected from said target surface and directing said reflected beam onto a sensor array to create an intensity profile signal;
means for sampling said intensity profile signal at a first sampling rate fc to create a set of data points representing the intensity distribution on said array in each sampling period;
means for directing at least a portion of the reflected beam onto photodetector means to obtain an output signal representative of the intensity of said reflected beam;
means for sampling said output signal at a second sampling rate fp significantly higher than said first sampling rate fc to create second data points representative of intensity in each sampling period at said second sampling rate; and
means for deriving from said first set of data points a third set of data representative of the relative position of said reflected beam on said sensor array as said beam scans said surface while using said second data to provide additional information at a higher resolution about the appearance of the surface within each sampling period at said first sampling rate. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. A method of determining the color and profile of a target surface, comprising the steps of:
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scanning the target surface with an incident light beam containing a plurality of component wavelengths;
forming a beam of light reflected from said target surface;
forming the reflected beam into one or more separate sub-beams corresponding to the component wavelength or wavelengths of the reflected beam;
directing said one or more sub-beams onto one or more sensor arrays to form one or more intensity profile signals;
sampling said one or more intensity profile signals at a first sampling rate fc to create a first set of data points representing the intensity distribution on said array in each sampling period;
directing at least a portion of the reflected beam onto wavelength sensitive photodetector means to obtain an output signal representative of the wavelength composition of said reflected beam, and sampling said output signal at a second sampling rate fp significantly higher than said first sampling rate fc to create second data points representative of intensity in each sampling period at said second sampling rate;
determining the color and profile of the target surface from the positions and shapes of peaks produced by said one or more sub-beams on said sensor array using said data representative of the approximate wavelength composition to resolve potential ambiguities in the results obtained from said sensor array; and
deriving from said first set of data points a third set of data representative of the position of said one or more sub-beams on said sensor array as said beam scans said surface while using said second data to provide additional information at a higher resolution about the appearance of the surface within each sampling period at said first sampling rate. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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Specification